LAUSR

Abstract The Anaerobic Digestion Model No.1 (ADM1) was extended for simulation of syngas biomethanation from lab-scale to pilot-scale, with the development of the gas–liquid mass transfer, the inhibition equations, and the biochemical reaction of CO and H2. In the lab-scale reactor, after increasing the syngas flow rate and syngas loading, the syngas conversion efficiency into methane increased from less than 68% to over 95%. The ADM1_modified was developed based on lab-scale data, and the simulation values fitted the experimental results well with R2 values higher than 0.86. The data from the pilot-scale reactor was then used for model validation, and methane production (MP) predictions matched well with the measured data (R2 > 0.83). Methanogenic pathways were further explored and compared by using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the ADM1_modified simulation, and the results from the two methods were highly similar. The established ADM1_modified could be used to describe or predict the syngas biomethanation process macroscopically and microscopically.