Partner archive · Anaerobic digestion
Food processing digester cuts COD by 87% and TSS by 88% on a BGE₁ and BGE₂ programme.
High-load food processing digester — published partner study · Published partner field data · 31 March 2026
The challenge
According to the published account, the digester handled a high organic load with variable inputs — the pattern that most often destabilises a plant, because the biology never settles into a consistent feed. Variable, high-strength food processing waste tends to stall at hydrolysis and then push volatile fatty acids ahead of what the methanogens can convert.
The approach
A biological programme combining BGE₁, which accelerates hydrolysis of complex organics, with BGE₂, the humic and bacterial formulation that stabilises digestion and helps prevent VFA accumulation and foaming. The two are dosed 50:50 at 10 ppm/day against digester throughput.
Results
−87%
COD (partner figure)
6,655 → 845 mg/L
COD, before and after
−88%
TSS (partner figure)
1,600 → 200 mg/L
TSS, before and after
Ecological Laboratories present these as historical field data and state plainly that results vary depending on system conditions. We reference the study because AD operators rightly ask for before-and-after numbers rather than claims — and because it shows the pattern we would expect on a comparable plant: address hydrolysis and stability together, and the organic load coming through the process drops sharply. What it does not do is predict your plant. Digester performance depends on feedstock, retention time, loading rate and the operating window your vessel actually sits in.
Source documentation
Ecological Laboratories case archive (opens in a new tab)