Abstract The anaerobic digestion model presented here considers a two step process. First, acidogenic bacteria convert glucose into acetate then methanogenic bacteria convert this acid into methane and carbon dioxide. The biomass and metabolite production rates are described by distinct relations. Therefore, there is not a direct relationship between the growth and the energy production related to metabolite formation. The inhibitory effects of the unionized acid concentration on growth rate of both bacterial populations and the methane production from acetate were considered separately. The model was tested in batch cultures with two types of organic loads, i.e. pea bleaching wastewaters and a synthetic substrate containing sucrose and organic acid. The model allowed to simulate satisfactorily the methane production under very different operational conditions.
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