Patent Document ID: 5470745
Application ID: 08284167
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. Apparatus for controlling the methane fermentation of organic materials comprising a first fermentor in which the organic materials are situated, sensors coupled to said first fermentor for taking physical-chemical measurements of the material in said first fermentor, a first computer for processing these measurements and converting the measurements with the assistance of a fermentation model into a characteristic variable of the biological state of the organic materials in said first fermentor, said fermentation model constituting a function of the concentration of non-ionized acetic acid, the concentration of total acetic acid, the pH value and the concentration of ionized acetic acid in the organic materials, a second computer for controlling said first fermentor from said characteristic variable, and an experimentation device comprising a second fermentor containing a sample of material taken from said first fermentor, sensors coupled to said second fermentor for measuring data of the methane fermentation of said sample in said second fermentor and a third computer for processing the data from said sensors coupled to said second fermentor and for sending the data to said first computer, said fermentation model being adjusted in said first computer based on the methane fermentation data of said sample in said second fermentor.