Thermal pretreatment and hydraulic retention time in continuous digesters fed with sewage sludge: Assessment using the ADM1

- The behavior of three pilot-scale sludge digesters was evaluated through modeling.
- The ADM1 was able to predict the effects of thermal pretreatment and HRT changes.
- Increases in the disintegration coefficient due to pretreatment were observed.
- Model under/overestimation lower than 15% regarding CH4 production.
- The ADM1 showed to be accurate and useful to predict the studied conditions.