Anaerobic Treatment In contrast, anaerobic treatment uses bacteria to help organic material deteriorate in an oxygen-free environment. Lagoons and septic tanks may use anaerobic processes, but the best-known anaerobic treatment is anaerobic digestion, which is used for treating effluent from food and beverage manufacturing, as well as municipal wastewater, chemical effluent, and agricultural waste. Anaerobic digestion drives one of the most robust areas of resource recovery: energy recovery. In this form of energy recovery, also known as waste-to-energy, anaerobic digestion is used to produce biogas, which is composed primarily of methane. Operators can use it to generate energy to help fuel operations on the way to become energy net zero, or even turn waste streams into revenue streams.
