The Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was applied in this study to simulate the processing of sugarcane vinasse in an Anaerobic Sequencing Batch Biofilm Reactor (AnSBBR). In the model calibration, the values of the free parameters, concentration of anaerobic biomass for specific species (X-su, X-c4, X-pro, X-ac, X-h2)(1), were obtained by minimizing the objective function expressed by the determinant of the Box-Draper Matrix. Afterwards, these parameters were optimized with the Monte Carlo Markov Chain Method, using the Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis Algorithm. The Geweke statistic test evaluated the convergence of the method. All results passed for direct and cross validation to elucidate the methane production, production and consumption of the organic acids and organic matter removal. The ADM1 was able to show the syntrophism between the species and to describe the experimental data, thus making it possible to be applied in others scenarios. However, it was not so adequate for all conditions in cross validation due to a lack of experimental data and the need to include other metabolic pathways in the model. The chosen concentration of anaerobic biomass for specific species were shown as an important step in this work, because these parameters are difficult to be determined in practice. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.