Steady state analysis of a syntrophic model: the effect of a new input substrate concentration

Abstract

In this work, we are interested in a reduced and simplified model of the anaerobic digestion process. We focus on the acetogenesis and hydrogenetrophic methanogenesis phases. The model describes a syntrophic relashionship between two microbial species (the acetogenic bacteria and the hydrogenetrophic methanogenic bacteria) with two input substrates (the fatty acids and the hydrogen) including both decay terms and inhibition of the acetogenic bacteria growth by an excess of hydrogen in the system. The existence and stability analysis of the steady states of the model points out the existence of a new equilibrium point which can be stable according to the operating parameters of the system. By means of operating diagrams, we show that, whatever the region of space considered, there exists only one locally exponentially stable steady state.