Computer Design of Anaerobic Lagoons Using the Rational Design Standard

ANAEROBIC lagoons have been designed for many years using one of three standards (a) the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, (b) the Midwest Plan Service, or (c) the Soil Conservation Service Standards. In 1985, Barth introduced a new design procedure called the Rational Design Standard (RDS). The method attempts to design a single stage anaerobic lagoon using: (a) optimum volatile solids (VS) reduction, (b) odor control, and (c) controlled sludge volume accumulation as the criteria for performance. An ANSI standard FORTRAN program has been developed to design anaerobic lagoons for swine, poultry (layer and broiler) and dairy waste based on the RDS procedure. The program produces almost identical results compared to manual calculations with the minor differences resulting from the regressions performed to extract data from figures presented in the original manuscript.