The employment of anaerobic digestion technology (biomethanation) for the management of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste is a reality that has been spreading out all around the world. The dry biomethanation, in particular, has been highlighted due to its biological system higher robustness and to the low generation of liquid effluents. In order to assess the dry biomethanation technologies performance, technical visits were carried out at different plants representing the major technologies available - Valorga, Laran, Kompogas, and Dranco - and, based on in situ observations as well as on projected performance data, it was developed an assessment methodology, composed by 35 indexes, divided into 4 groups: Historic; Operational Aspects; Projected Performance; Real Performance. After all, the best performance was presented by technologies referred to as 4 and 2 that employs rectangular horizontal digesters stirred by impellers with axis across the flux of the digesting material.
biomethanation; municipal solid waste; Laran; Valorga; Kompogas; Dranco; comparison of performance; technology assessment
