The development of the submerged fixed-cover digester design has provided fixed-cover conventional shaped digesters with the same key features that have made egg-shaped digesters successful in controlling digester scum and debris accumulation. The construction phase of the first two projects utilizing the submerged fixed-cover digester concept, in Sacramento, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, was completed in 1996. These projects are compared (benchmarked) against a project with egg-shaped digesters constructed during the same time frame. The egg-shaped digesters at the City of Los Angeles, Hyperion plant were selected for the basis of comparison. Projects are compared in terms of construction cost, land area requirements, construction experience, and process variables.