Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)

Determination of the adequate minimum

model complexity required in anaerobic
bioprocesses using experimental data
Jorge Rodrguez,1

Enrique Roca,1 Juan M Lema1 and Olivier Bernard2

1 Department

of Chemical Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rua

de Marzoa s/n, E-15782 Santiago de
Lope Gomez
Compostela, Spain
2 INRIA Comore, 2004 Route des Lucioles, BP 93, F-06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Modelling of anaerobic bioprocesses requires adequate conciliation between model accuracy
and complexity. Anaerobic digestion is a highly complex biocatalysed process in which organic (waste) materials
are converted into biogas. Complex mathematical models of the process can be difficult to manage, while too
simplistic models may be insufficient for specific applications.
RESULTS: A technique based on principal component analysis (PCA) is presented to assess the most adequate
complexity in anaerobic bioprocess models using preliminary data. The technique is applied to experimental
data from a continuously operated pilot-scale anaerobic digestion process treating diluted wine and to process
simulation data generated by a highly complex model (ADM1). The results obtained suggest that models
incorporating only four reactions can describe most of the experimental data variability. Similarly, a simplification
of the highly complex modified ADM1 used to a four-reaction model could attain equivalent simulation accuracy.
A set of possible four-reaction networks was evaluated using the PCA information and a best candidate network of
reactions is obtained.
CONCLUSION: The developed PCA-based tool allows for the assessment of the adequate complexity in
mathematical models of anaerobic digestion of ethanol, a process that appears describable with a high level
of accuracy by considering only four biological reactions.
2008 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords: mathematical modelling; principal component analysis; anaerobic digestion; model reduction; model
structure characterisation

INTRODUCTION
Mathematical models are extensively applied in the
design, optimisation and operation of a wide range
of (bio)processes. Different modelling approaches
and model structures for the same (bio)process
may be used depending on the objectives and
on the amount and quality of data available.
There is one critical step in the development
of mathematical models, called model structure
characterisation (SC), which consists of defining the
adequate level of model complexity required and
determining the mathematical relationships between
variables. Model SC can also be set out as the
selection of the best model structure among different
candidates.1
Among the methods for SC that exist in the
literature, none appears to be clearly superior and
recommendable over others in terms of its impact on

the time and resources needed for the whole model

development process.2 4 There exist a number of
so-called a posteriori methods for SC that evaluate
the quality of a candidate model structure by fitting
the model to experimental data sets1 and that therefore
require a previous parameter estimation for that
data fit.
SC methods not requiring a previous parameter
estimation and capable of selecting a model structure
are called a priori SC methods. A priori SC can
thus be defined as model selection based on the
analysis of preliminary data. Although several of these
techniques, more or less generally applicable, exist,
the field is considered underdeveloped5 and it is, in
most cases, the modellers expertise that is key in the
SC process.
The specific characteristics of biological processes,
which include high levels of uncertainty, nonlinear

Correspondence to: Jorge Rodrguez, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rua
de Marzoa s/n,E Lope Gomez
15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
E-mail: jrodrigu@glam.ac.uk

Present address: Sustainable Environmental Research Centre, University of Glamorgan, 2 Forest Grove, Pontypridd CF37 1UB, UK
E-mail: jrodrigu@glam.ac.uk
(Received 26 March 2008; revised version received 29 April 2008; accepted 4 May 2008)
Published online 10 July 2008; DOI: 10.1002/jctb.1990

2008 Society of Chemical Industry. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 02682575/2008/$30.00

Adequate minimum model complexity in anaerobic processes

behaviour and larger variability, make an adequate

SC an essential step of the model development.
Considering that, for biological systems, the iterations through the model development loop frequently
require structure modifications,6 good methods for SC
are decisive.1
Modelling of anaerobic bioprocesses has been a very
active area throughout the last two or three decades,
with the incorporation of new findings and knowledge
on the bioconversions involved.7 12 Much of this
knowledge was integrated in the development of the
IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1),13 a
general-purpose model with a high level of complexity
in terms of the number of processes and parameters,
which has served as a framework for most of the
anaerobic digestion modelling applications developed
in recent years.14
The modelling of (anaerobic) bioprocesses inevitably involves highly simplified schemes of the
reality (more than 100 different bacterial species have
been reported in an anaerobic digester15 ) because
of the limited understanding of the underlying
biochemistry and microbial interactions occurring
in these processes. Despite the simplifications used,
anaerobic process models may easily become highly
complex and difficult to manage when detailed
predictions of the process and its dynamics are
sought. The assessment of the most adequate level
of complexity, in terms of e.g. the number of reactions
to consider, is vital to avoid an unmanageable boost in
complexity, a consequence of cumulative additions
of more and more biological information to the
models.
Complementary to SC, a methodology to reduce
the complexity of existing models would be useful.
A number of reactions of relevance, among those
present in a specific large complex model, may be
selected by analysis of simulation data and a reduced
model version proposed. Such a reduced model should
be able to produce equivalent simulation results to
those from the original large complex model for the
system and conditions studied, avoiding, however, the
extensive parameter identification necessary by the
original, more complex model.
In this work a statistical technique called principal
component analysis (PCA) is applied to a set of
experimental data obtained from the operation of
a fully instrumented pilot-scale anaerobic digester
treating diluted wine. The PCA is used to demonstrate
a methodology for the assessment of the minimum
number of reactions to be included in a candidate
model structure to describe different percentages of
the data variability. This will provide a tool for the
assessment of the minimum level of model complexity
necessary to describe the dynamics of the system
at a desired accuracy level as part of an a priori
SC procedure. The same PCA-based approach is
applied to simulation data obtained from an extended
version of the highly complex model ADM1,16 aiming
at the simplification of that model in terms of the
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)
DOI: 10.1002/jctb

number of reactions, as part of a model reduction

procedure.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

PCA to relate data variability retained with
number of reactions considered
The dynamic behaviour of bioprocesses in completely
mixed stirred tank bioreactors is often described by a
general mass balance equation around the liquid phase
in the form of Eqn (1).17
dx/dt = D (xin x) Q(x) + K r(x)

(1)

where x = (x1 x2 . . . xn )T is the n 1 vector of

measurable concentrations of the species in the liquid,
D is the dilution rate, Q represents the loss of
mass of each species by transfer to the gas phase,
r = (r1 r2 . . . rp )T is the p 1 vector of conversion rates
considered and K is the n p matrix containing the
pseudostoichiometry associated with the macroscopic
reaction network considered.
This general representation assumes an underlying
network of chemical and biological reactions whose
stoichiometry is represented in the columns of matrix
K . The higher the number of reactions considered,
the higher is the number of columns (dimension) of
matrix K . The question of assessing the dimension
of matrix K is formulated as the assessment of the
dimension of the image of K (matrix K assumed to
be of full rank).18 The determination of the dimension
of the image of K is a classical problem in statistical
analysis and corresponds to PCA, which determines
the dimension of the vector space spanned by the
vector ki corresponding to the rows of K .19
In order to operate the PCA in the right basis,
the general mass balance expression (Eqn (1)) is
integrated between two time instants t0 and t. The left
term of Eqn (2) is independent of the kinetics and is
entirely computable from experimental measurements
without any kinetic information being required.20

x(t) x(t0 )

[D (xin x) Q(x)]dt
t0

=K

r()dt

(2)

t0

The noise, normally present in all experimental

data, is filtered by applying a moving average window
of size T to the data, and functions u(t) and w(t)
are defined according to Eqn (3). The integration of
Eqn (1) is done between 0 and t for t < T (Eqn (3a))
and between t T and t for t T (Eqn (3b)).


u(t) = x(t) x(0)

[D (xin x) Q(x)]dt,
0

w(t) =

r()dt

(3a)

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J Rodrguez et al.

u(t) = x(t) x(tT )

[D (xin x) Q(x)]dt,
tT

w(t) =

r()dt

(3b)

tT

After data normalisation to remove the magnitude

effects on the variables, and rewriting the equations in
the form u(t) = K w(t), the PCA can be applied to
assess the dimension of K , which is also the dimension
of the space occupied by u(t).
For a set of N data records of u(t) the n N
matrix U = [u(t1 ) u(t2 ) . . . u(tN )] is considered.
The unknown associated matrix of reaction rates,
W = [w(t1 ) w(t2 ) . . . w(tN )], is assumed to be of
full rank (i.e. none of the reaction rates is a linear
combination of others), and more recorded time
instants ti than state variables are required (N > n).
Under these assumptions it can be proved that the
n n matrix M = U U T = K W W T K T has rank
p. Since M is symmetric, it can also be written
as M = P T
P, where P is an orthogonal matrix
(P T P = I) and

1
0
.
.
.

=

0
2
0

...
0
..
.
p
0
..
...

...

0
0

..

with i1 i > 0 for i {2, . . . , p}. This is a

direct application of the singular decomposition
theorem, since rank(M) = rank(K M) = rank(K ) =
rank(
) = p. Thus the number of reactions can be
determined by counting the number of non-zero
singular values of U U T . A more detailed explanation
of the technique and the theory behind it can be found
elsewhere.21
The relationship between the percentage of the
data variability retained and the number of reactions
considered by a candidate model structure (i.e. the
dimension of its matrix K ) can be calculated. Each
reaction considered will correspond to a principal
component (PC) and will retain a percentage of the
total system variability. These relationships may be
calculated using the MATLAB (The MathWorks,
Boston, MA) function pcacov. This function returns
the PCs (new axes) that represent the system, showing
the maximum variability, the variances and the
percentages of variability described by each PC.
The reaction network sought is an approximation
of the real chemical and metabolic network, which
is usually of much larger complexity and dimension.
With this scheme the fast and slow reactions will
appear as perturbations of the dominant much-lowerdimensional network of reactions sought.21
1696

Anaerobic pilot-scale bioreactor

Experimental data obtained from the continuous
operation of a pilot-scale hybrid UASB-AF reactor of
1.2 m3 (1 m3 liquid) useful volume treating diluted
wine22,23 were used for this study. The reactor
consisted of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket
(UASB) zone at the bottom (about 75% of the
total volume) and an anaerobic filter (AF) made of
rings 50 50 mm (length diameter), at the top. The
headspace of the reactor was 0.8 m3 and the whole
system was jacketed with thermal isolating material.
The reactor hydraulics had been previously checked
for continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) behaviour
in the liquid phase, which allowed for an acceptable
description of the system using Eqn (1).
Independent water and wine pumps enabled the
control of the influent concentration, while nutrients
and alkalinity dosage had a separate pump. A
recirculation pump delivered sufficient mixing to the
reactor, the temperature being maintained via a heater
over the recirculation line. The plant was extensively
instrumented. On-line measurement devices were in
place for feed and recycling flow rates, influent and
reactor pH and temperature (Pt100) and gas flow
rate. An infrared gas analyser for methane and traces
of carbon monoxide, a hydrogen gas analyser and
an on-line total organic and inorganic carbon (TOC
and TIC) combustion analyser were also in place.
Noise-reduced (using an on-site prefilter) on-line data
were collected every 15 min by a monitoring and data
acquisition system.24
The data used in this study were obtained from
several experiments utilising synthetic wastewater
consisting of in situ diluted wine as substrate. Prior
to these experiments the reactor had been operated
under stable conditions for longer than 1 month at an
organic loading rate (OLR) of around 5 kg chemical
oxygen demand (COD) m3 day1 .
Table 1 summarises the operational conditions
imposed on the system.23 Note that, since ethanol
is the only carbon source, the OLR is calculated from
the on-line TOC measurement available (TOC/COD
ratio known).
Three consecutive increases in OLR were applied
in order to obtain three different stable treatment
performances. The duration of each condition was
about 5 days, a time considered long enough to achieve
a pseudo-steady performance (considering that the
hydraulic residence time (HRT) is between 0.6 and
Table 1. Operational conditions imposed on pilot-scale UASB-AF
reactor

Statea
1. NO
2. HO
3. HO + OO
4. HO + OO
a

Period
(days)

OLR (kg COD

m3 day1 )

HRT
(h)

Influent TOC
(mg C L1 )

04
49
913
1416

5
18
29
36

45.455
15.152
15.152
15.152

3000
3000
4500
6000

NO, normal operation; HO, hydraulic overload; OO, organic overload.

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)

DOI: 10.1002/jctb

Adequate minimum model complexity in anaerobic processes

1.5 days). During the last of the overloads (OLR of

about 36 kg COD m3 day1 ) the process reached
a complete inhibition of methanogenesis and an
important accumulation of intermediate volatile fatty
acids (up to 7 g VFA L1 as acetic acid equivalents).

RESULTS
The proposed methodology has been applied to
an experimental data set23 covering a range of
perturbation levels of the system (see Fig. 1). By
PCA of the experimental data the percentages of data
variability retained are related with the number of
reactions considered in a candidate model structure
(i.e. dimension of matrix K ). This is calculated for
different values of the moving average window T used
for data filtration (Eqn (3)). This information about
the number of relevant processes, together with a
model structure formulation and selection, constitutes
an a priori SC methodology.
Exactly the same PCA is applied to simulation data
obtained from a large complex model (modification
of ADM116 ) of the same system and experimental
conditions in order to identify the simplest model
structure that would be able to produce equivalent
simulation results.25 These results, together with a

subsequent model structure simplification, constitute

a model reduction methodology.
PCA on experimental data for model structure
characterisation
The experimental data set used corresponds to an
experiment where a series of increasing influent OLRs
had been applied to the anaerobic digester. The
system was started under pseudo-steady state normal
operation with a moderate load and was then subjected
to a series of increasing overloads until its maximum
resistance, causing a final system overload. Figure 1
presents an overview of the experiment, which covers
a wide range or organic loads to the anaerobic reactor,
including a complete inhibition of methanogenesis
under the later conditions.
The PCA-based technique described above was
applied to the experimental data in order to assess
the number of reactions required to be included in a
model to describe the data variability in terms of seven
measured variables, namely the liquid concentrations
of ethanol, butyrate, propionate and acetate and
the gas concentrations of hydrogen, carbon dioxide
and methane. The species in the gas phase are
assumed to have a null concentration in the liquid
phase. After data integration and filtration using

Figure 1. Overview of experimental results of a series of increasing influent OLR steps in a pilot-scale UASB-AF reactor treating diluted wine.

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)

DOI: 10.1002/jctb

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J Rodrguez et al.

Figure 2. Relationship between system variability retained and number of reactions considered for different data filter time windows. Data from an
experiment with increasing steps of influent OLR in a UASB-AF reactor treating ethanol.

a moving window of size T (Eqn (3)), the PCA

decomposition using the pcacov function from Matlab
was applied. The relationship between the percentage
of data variability described and the number of
reactions considered (dimension of K ) is presented
in Fig. 2 for different sizes of the data filter window
(T ).
Although the outcome of the computation appears
to be significantly dependent on the T value, the results
show that a model considering only four reactions
would be able to retain more than 90% of the system
variability, irrespective of the T value used, and that
more than 95% would be retained with five reactions.
A reasonably good description of the system could also
be achieved with three reactions when the largest T
values (i.e. 1224 h) are used.
PCA on simulated data for model reduction
The PCA-based technique was also applied to
simulation data of the same system and operational
conditions, generated by a modification of ADM1
extended for ethanol degradation,16 with the objective
of simplifying that highly complex model.
An overview of the simulation data is presented in
Fig. 3 showing how the large-complexity model used
mimics well the original experimental data (Fig. 1)
and therefore accounts for most of the intrinsic
dynamics of the real process. The variability of
the simulation system was defined in terms of the
same seven variables as for the experimental case to
enable direct comparison of results. Namely, ethanol,
butyrate, propionate and acetate liquid concentrations
and hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane gas
concentrations were the variables considered.
The results of the application of PCA to the
simulated data show that more than 90% of the
variability of the system is described by considering
1698

only three reactions, while almost 100% is described

with only four reactions (Fig. 4). Unlike the results
obtained with the experimental data, the relationship
between the variability retained and the number of
reactions has a much lower dependence on the size of
the data filter time window (T ).
By comparison of this dependence between the
simulation case (absence of data noise) and the
experimental case (presence of data noise), the effect
of the noise on the variability functions at different
T values is clearly recognised. This should be taken
into account during the interpretation of the results for
either model reduction or SC purposes. For the case
of model reduction, at least four reactions would be
necessary, since the simulation data are virtually noisefree and a higher percentage of variability description is
fairly demanded. This result suggests that the complex
extended ADM1 could be simplified into a fourreaction model without significant loss of capabilities
to describe the dynamics of the system studied.
Simplified candidate models for anaerobic
digestion
The application studied here consisted of the
anaerobic digestion of diluted wine where the only
COD source was ethanol. The results obtained with
the PCA technique suggest that a model with only four
reactions would be adequate to describe this anaerobic
digestion system.
Although the PCA-based assessment technique does
not directly return candidate model structures itself, it
provides valuable information to define the reactions
to be included in candidate model structures. The PCs
(PCA new axes) are known to be linear combinations
of the variables used for the analysis and are therefore
related to the stoichiometry of the reactions to be
considered. The interpretation of the PCs is not
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)
DOI: 10.1002/jctb

Adequate minimum model complexity in anaerobic processes

Figure 3. Simulation of several increasing steps of influent OLR in a pilot-scale UASB-AF reactor treating diluted wine, using a modification of
ADM1 incorporating ethanol degradation.

straightforward, since the information is not explicitly

represented in them, but they can provide very useful
directions. Methods exist to address this problem,20
but the modellers expertise and knowledge about the
process are also required to select among candidate
model structures in view of the methods results.
In this study, further steps are taken to show how
the PCA results provide a hint as to which reaction
network could best explain the data set. In order to do
this, the modellers expertise is first used to define a
set of possible reactions involved in ethanol anaerobic
digestion as shown in Table 2. In order to assess
which would be the most plausible reaction network,
different subsets of four reactions have been extracted
to be matched with the PCA results.
From this set of reactions, three possible consistent four-reaction networks and one possible consistent three-reaction network have been proposed for
evaluation. Each reaction network (RNi ) is represented by its associated matrix. The four-reaction networks are defined as RN1 = [R1, R2, R3, R4], RN2 =
[R1, R5, R6, R7] and RN3 = [R8, R9, R2, R7], while
the only consistent three-reaction network is defined
as RN4 = [R1, R2, R7].
Each matrix must then be transformed in order
to be decomposed into an orthonormal basis. A
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)
DOI: 10.1002/jctb

GramSchmidt algorithm has been used in order to

extract from RNi a basis which generates exactly the
same space. Each vector of the basis can then be
assessed for its capacity to represent a percentage of
the variance by projecting it onto the principal axes.
The sum of the variance represented by each basis
vector is the ability of RNi to reproduce the measured
data.19
Application of the method to the candidate reaction
networks suggested above indicates that the three fourreaction networks RN1 , RN2 and RN3 can retain
85.46, 78.85 and 76.39% of the data variability
respectively, while the three-reaction network RN4
can retain only 72.67%.
From these results the best four-reaction network
proposed for use in a reduced model is RN1 , consisting
of R1 (acidogenesis of ethanol to butyrate, propionate,
acetate and hydrogen), R2 (acetogenesis of butyrate
and propionate to acetate), R3 (acetoclastic methanogenesis) and R4 (hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis).
Acceptable results might be obtained by using any
of the other networks proposed, even the threereaction network, since it is able to retain a significant
percentage of the system variability with only three
reactions.
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J Rodrguez et al.

Figure 4. Relationship between system variability retained and number of reactions considered for different data filter time windows. Data from
simulation using a modification of ADM1 incorporating ethanol degradation.

Table 2. Stoichiometries of nine possible candidate reactions to be considered for modelling anaerobic digestion of ethanol

Reaction
R1. EtOH BuH + ProH + AcH + H2
R2. BuH + ProH AcH + H2
R3. AcH CH4 + CO2
R4. H2 + CO2 CH4
R5. BuH AcH + H2
R6. ProH AcH + H2
R7. H2 + AcH CH4
R8. EtOH AcH
R9. EtOH BuH + ProH

EtOH

BuH

ProH

AcH

0.100
1

0.042
0.419

0.737
2.419
1

1
1

0.413

DISCUSSION
Consistency of results
The results obtained by PCA suggesting that four
reactions are sufficient to describe the system dynamics
are in line with recently published work that showed
how intermediate fast processes have minor effects
on the observed dynamics of methanogenic anaerobic
digesters26 and therefore might be neglected for most
purposes.
The characteristics of anaerobic digestion processes,
where slow methanogenic reactions are preceded
by faster acidogenic and acetogenic steps, and the
requirements for control of these processes suggest
that the number of reactions recommended here would
not vary much irrespective of how many and which
variables are involved, as long as a similar anaerobic
system with a hydrolysed substrate is considered.
The fact that the system studied here was strongly
perturbed at different levels, including a complete
inhibition of methanogenesis, extends the significance
of the results to a wider range of operational conditions
in similar anaerobic systems, for which simple models
considering only four reactions could be adequate.
1700

2
1
1
1

0.173

H2

CH4

CO2

1
0.25

0.419
1
0.25

1.5

1
0.5

1.758
3.257
1
2
3
2
2
0.653

0.173

H2 O
0.758
2.838
0.5
2
2
1
1
0.173

The four-reaction network also offers a reasonable

balance between model complexity and description of
data variability. The number of parameters to identify
is manageable and the result agrees with previous
reports suggesting that relatively simple model
structures can acceptably describe the variability of
anaerobic digestion processes.21 Examples exist in
the literature of similar simplified anaerobic digestion
models that have been extensively used for dynamic
and control applications.12
The four-reaction network suggested is also consistent with the known metabolic pathways for ethanol
degradation.27 This study proves the utility of PCA
in modelling the anaerobic digestion of ethanol and
is also the first to provide a consistent four-reaction
network from a set of metabolic reactions using PCA
on experimental data.
Influence of data filter window size
The results presented in Figs 2 and 4 show the
influence of the size of the moving average data filter
time window (T ) on the results. Noise-free data such
as those obtained from simulation showed almost no
influence of the T value on the PCA results, while the
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)
DOI: 10.1002/jctb

Adequate minimum model complexity in anaerobic processes

results from experimental data with noise are clearly

more affected.
On interpretation of the results, a size of T should
be selected such that a compromise is reached between
the level of data noise needing filtration and the
requirements of the model in terms of faster dynamics
to be captured. If large values of T are used, shortterm dynamics are lost and the model will be less
suitable for control of perturbations in those time
ranges. Large T values might also cause an amplified
weight of the initial conditions (see Eqn (3)) for
cases where (0, T ) is a large percentage of the total
time (0, tf ) of the experiment. On the other hand,
small values of T provide less data filtration and the
variability due to noise is not removed, leading to
an artificially increased number of reactions required
to retain the system variability. Regular increases in
the percentage of variability retention for increasing
numbers of reactions are a typical indicator of noiserelated variability. In this study, by comparison of
the results obtained from experimental data and
those obtained from simulation (noise-free) data, the
effect of noise can be taken into account by the
modeller during the subsequent decision-making steps
for model reduction or SC.
Model structure characterisation and model
reduction techniques
Application of the PCA-based technique presented
here for assessment of the system dimension in an
anaerobic digestion process appears to be a powerful
tool for two different purposes relevant to model
development, namely as an a priori SC methodology
and as a model reduction methodology. Figure 5
presents an outline of both methodologies making use
of the PCA technique described above. This approach
can be extended not only to anaerobic digestion
systems but also to any biotechnological process that
can be described by mass balance-based equations.

Figure 5. Methodologies for model structure characterisation (left)

and model reduction (right) using proposed PCA technique.

anaerobic digestion processes by avoiding unnecessary complexity while maintaining the desired model
accuracy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the Spanish National
R&D Program and European Regional Development
Fund (ERDF) for the project ANACOM CTQ200407811-C02-01.

REFERENCES
CONCLUSIONS
Application of the PCA-based technique presented in
this paper appears to be a powerful tool to assess the
minimum number of reactions necessary in a model
to describe the dynamics of a pilot-scale anaerobic
digestion process treating diluted wine under a wide
range of operational conditions.
The results of the study indicate that a model
including only four reactions can describe most of the
variability in the experimental system studied. Similar
results are expected for other anaerobic digestion
systems treating hydrolysed substrates. The evaluation
of several consistent candidate reaction networks
using the GramSchmidt algorithm resulted in the
recommendation of a four-reaction model that can
describe 85.46% of the experimental data variability.
The method described contributes to the development of more adequate mathematical models of
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 83:16941702 (2008)
DOI: 10.1002/jctb

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DOI: 10.1002/jctb