title: Quantitative analyses of anaerobic wastewater treatment processes: identifiability and parameter estimation.
abstract: We investigated the problem of identifying the parameters of a nonlinear fifth order model describing the population dynamics of two main bacterial groups in an anaerobic wastewater treatment process. In addition to addressing problems concerning structural and practical identifiability, we also analyzed how mathematical descriptions of bacterial population dynamics can model real data. Using three data sets recorded under different experimental conditions, we estimated important biochemical parameters and demonstrated that our model could describe the data successfully. Parameters, which are simultaneously determined using information from all three experiments, have more reliable estimates. We conclude that, after appropriate estimation, this model can be used for optimization and the control of continuous processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Nelly
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Noykova
authors.forename: Thorsten G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gyllenberg
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Timmer
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis / Q000502:physiology; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*