I work for a company that designs educational training units and write experiment manuals for these training units.  We design so many different types of units that it is impossible to get a thorough understanding of the units in the allotted amount of time.  

My current project includes designing small scale aerobic and anaerobic digesters for experimental purposes.  The design is coming along ok (although I could use suggestions on that as well) but what I am concerned about is developing experiments for these units.  

Does anyone have the time to help with this?  It may be a month-long issue....Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Dear Katy
let us start with pilot anaerobic Digester :
- tank can be cylidercal but better if egg shap
- it shoud be poperly sealed
- sludge feed will be from top - and withdrow from bottom
- fix agitator (mixer) to mix the containtes continuously
- maintain sludge temperature at 33 - 38 C
- fit pump to circulate sludge from bottom to top
- fix vertical vent pipe at top to dischardge produced gas and  fix small ballon so it will indicate to you that gas staretd releasing
- start your process with at least 20% digested sludge then feed it daily with raw sludge at countaty makes 20 - 30 days retention time
- once you get stable digestion process you may change datas and record the results ( data : retention time - temperature - sludge feed dry solids% - mixing rate and direction ) then ( results : gas production rate - digested sludge dry solid % - physical observations like foaming or settelablity )
- if you feel that helpful for you - we can go in more details
thank & regards

If you just want something for demos and data isn't critical, just dilute some canned baby formula.  The dilution will depend on what you are trying to show.

Here is a research grade material



3.1.3. Synthetic Wastewater

In order to maintain consistent influent characteristics throughout the study, synthetic wastewater was prepared according to a set recipe.  A dilution of the synthetic sewage recipe described in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Procedure 302 C was utilized to achieve an influent with a COD of approximately 1000 mg/L, in order to simulate the characteristics of wastewater from a typical textile dyeing and finishing location.  The recipe that was used in the study also included four mineral nutrient solutions from OECD Procedure 302 B, as shown below:

Table 3.1 Recipes for Nutrient Solutions
Solution      Ingredient      Concentration
A      Potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate, KH2PO4      8.5 g/L
     Dipotassium hydrogen orthophosphate, K2HPO4      21.75 g/L
     Disodium hydrogen orthophosphate dihydrate, Na2HPO4 . 7H2O      50.3 g/L
     Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl      0.5 g/L
B      Calcium chloride, anhydrous, CaCl2      27.5 g/L
C      Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, MgSO4 . 7H2O      22.5 g/L
D      Iron (III) chloride hexahydrate, FeCl3 . 6H2O      0.25 g/L
     Concentrated hydrochloric acid, HCl      0.1 mL/L

One liter each of solutions B, C, and D were used throughout the entire study.  Solution A was prepared every two weeks.  
The synthetic wastewater was composed of synthetic feed components, salt (NaCl), sodium hydroxide solution for pH adjustment, and mineral solutions, according to the following recipe:
Table 3.2 Synthetic Wastewater Recipe
Ingredient      Concentration
Solution A      10 mL/L
Solution B      1 mL/L
Solution C      1 mL/L
Solution D      1 mL/L
60 g/L NaOH      2 mL/L
Salt (NaCl)      1.5 g/L
Peptone      0.5 g/L
Glucose      0.5 g/L
Monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4)      0.5 g/L
Note: salt was added to synthetic wastewater at the start of the anoxic/aerobic cycles.