Anaerobic digestion is considered a competitive source for the production of renewable energy as far as efficiency and cost are concerned. To evaluate the anaerobic biodegradability of an organic substrate such as feedstocks, a test known as biochemical methane potential (BMP) has been commonly used. Current worldwide interest in using different organic substrates for anaerobic bioconversion is growing but there is a lack of clear references and comparability as a result of multiple factors that affect BMP determination. Several batch methods have been used to determine the methane potential. However, these technical approaches vary significantly from one reported method to the next another. In this review, the research works on the influence of different parameters of BMP determination have been discussed for critical and comparative evaluation. In addition, the extensive literature previously published dealing with BMP assays has been compiled and summarized focusing on two main subjects: firstly, methane yields of substrates, and secondly, the description of the various experimental procedures used to achieve the reported data. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of “Ciencia and Innovación” (Project CTM 2008-05772/Tecno) and Junta de Andalucia for providing financial support, to the Program “FPI” of the above-mentioned ministry for contracting graduates, as well as to the contract JAE-Doc from “Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios del CSIC” co-financed by the European Social Funds. Peer Reviewed