Developments in production technology have frequently resulted in the concentrated local accumulation of highly organic-laden wastewaters. Anaerobic wastewater treatment, in industrial applications, constitutes an advanced method of synthesis by which inexpensive substrates are converted into valuable disproportionate products. A critical discussion of certain fundamental principles of biochemical reaction engineering relevant to the anaerobic mode of operation is made here, with special emphasis on the roles of thermodynamics, kinetics, mass and heat transfer, reactor design, biomass retention and recycling. The applications of the anaerobic processes are discussed, introducing the principles of an upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor and a fixed-bed loop reactor. The merits of staging reactor systems are presented using selected examples based on two decades of research in the field of anaerobic fermentation and wastewater treatment at the Forschungszentrum Julich (Julich Research Center, Germany). Wastewater treatment is an industrial process associated with one of the largest levels of mass throughput known, and for this reason it provides a major impetus to further developments in bioprocess technology in general.