Abstract
Aerobic granular sludge was successfully cultivated with the effluent of internal circulation (IC) reactor in a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) using activated sludge as seeding sludge. N removal was investigated in the start-up of aerobic granulation process. Initially, the phenomenon of partial nitrification was observed and nitrite accumulation rates (NO2 −-N/NO −x -N) were between 84.6 and 99.1 %. It was potentially caused by ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in the seeding activated sludge, high external environmental temperature (~32 °C) and free ammonia (FA) concentration. After 50 days’ running, the aerobic granules-based bioreactor demonstrated perfect performance in simultaneous removal of organic matter and ammonia nitrogen, and average removal efficiencies were maintained above 93 and 96 %, respectively. The maximum nitrogen removal efficiency of 83.1 % was achieved after the formation of aerobic granules. The average diameter of mature aerobic granular sludge mostly ranged from 0.5 to 1.0 mm. Furthermore, one typical cyclic test indicated that pH and DO profiles could be used as effective parameters for biological reactions occurring in the aerobic/anoxic process. The obtained results could provide further information on the cultivation of aerobic granular sludge with practical wastewater, especially with regard to nitrogen-rich industrial wastewater.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beun JJ, Hendriks A, Van Loosdrecht MCM, Morgenroth M, Wilderer PA, Heijnen JJ (1999) Aerobic granulation in a sequencing batch reactor. Water Res 31:2283–2290
Adav SS, Chen MY, Lee DJ, Ren NQ (2007) Degradation of phenol by aerobic granules and isolated yeast Candida tropicalis. Biotechnol Bioeng 96:844–852
Lei Q, Liu Y (2006) Aerobic granulation for organic carbon and nitrogen removal in alternating aerobic-anaerobic sequencing batch reactor. Chemosphere 63:926–933
Cassidy DP, Belia E (2005) Nitrogen and phosphorus removal from an abattoir wastewater in a SBR with aerobic granular sludge. Water Res 39:4817–4823
Xu H, Tay JH, Foo SK, Yang SF, Liu Y (2004) Removal of dissolved copper(II) and zinc(II) by aerobic granular sludge. Water Sci Technol 50:155–160
De Bruin LMM, De Kreuk MK, Van der Roest HFR, Van Loosdrecht MCM, Uijterlinde C (2004) Aerobic granular sludge technology: alternative for activated sludge technology? Water Sci Technol 49:1–9
Kim IS, Kim SM, Jang A (2008) Characterization of aerobic granules by microbial density at different COD loading rates. Bioresour Technol 99:18–25
Tay JH, Liu QS, Liu Y (2002) Aerobic granulation in sequential sludge blanket reactor. Water Sci Technol 46:13–18
Qin L, Liu Y, Tay JH (2004) Effect of settling time on aerobic granulation in sequencing batch reactor. Biochem Eng J 21:47–52
Wan JF, Yolaine B, Mathieu S (2009) Alternating anoxic feast/aerobic famine condition for improving granular sludge formation in sequencing batch airlift reactor at reduced aeration rate. Water Res 43:5097–5108
De Bruin LMM, Van der Roest HF, De Kreuk MK, Van Loosdrecht MCM (2005) Promising results pilot research aerobic granular sludge technology at WWTP Ede. Aerobic Granular Sludge 135–142
APHA (1998) Standards methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 20th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington
Ni BJ, Xie WM, Liu SG, Yu HQ, Wang YZ, Wang G, Dai XL (2009) Granulation of activated sludge in a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor for the treatment of low-strength municipal wastewater. Water Res 43:751–761
Schwarzenbeck N, Borges JM, Wilderer PA (2005) Treatment of dairy effluents in an aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 66:711–718
Su KZ, Yu HQ (2005) Formation and characterization of aerobic granules in a sequencing batch reactor treating soybean-processing wastewater. Environ Sci Technol 39:2818–2827
Carrera J, Vicent T, Lafuente J (2004) Effect of influent COD/N ratio on biological nitrogen removal (BNR) from high-strength ammonium industrial wastewater. Process Biochem 39:2035–2041
Figueroa M, Corral AM, Campos JL, Méndez R (2008) Treatment of saline wastewater in SBR aerobic granular reactors. Water Sci Technol 58:479–485
Ni BJ, Yu HQ (2010) Mathematical modeling of aerobic granular sludge: a review. Biotechnol Adv 28:895–909
Yan J, Hu YY (2009) Partial nitrification to nitrite for treating ammonium-rich organic wastewater by immobilized biomass system. Bioresour Technol 100:341–347
Van der Star WRL, Abma WR, Blommers D, Mulder JW, Tokutomi T, Strous M, Picioreanu C, Van Loosdrecht MCM (2007) Startup of reactors for anoxic ammonium oxidation: experiences from the first full-scale anammox reactor in Rotterdam. Water Res 41:4149–4163
Ford DL, Churchwell RL, Kachtick JW (1980) Comprehensive analysis of nitrification of chemical processing wastewaters. J Water Pollu Control Federat 52:2726–2746
Bae W, Baek S, Chung J, Lee Y (2001) Optimal operational factors for nitrite accumulation in batch reactors. Biodegradation 12:359–366
De Kreuk MK, Pronk M, Van Loosdrecht MCM (2005) Formation of aerobic granules and conversion processes in an aerobic granular sludge reactor at moderate and low temperatures. Water Res 39:4476–4484
Arrojo B, Mosquera-Corral A, Garrido JM, Mendez R (2004) Aerobic granulation with industrial wastewater in sequencing batch reactors. Water Res 38:3389–3399
Ji GD, Zhai FM, Wang RJ, Ni JR (2010) Sludge granulation and performance of a low superficial gas velocity sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in the treatment of prepared sanitary wastewater. Bioresour Technol 101:9058–9064
Wang F, Lu S, Wei YJ, Ji M (2009) Characteristics of aerobic granule and nitrogen and phosphorus removal in a SBR. J Hazard Mater 164:1223–1227
Liu YQ, Tay JH (2008) Influence of starvation time on formation and stability of aerobic granules in sequencing batch reactors. Bioresour Technol 99:980–985
Tanwar P, Nandy T, Ukey P, Manekar P (2008) Correlating on-line monitoring parameters, pH, DO and ORP with nutrient removal in an intermittent cyclic process bioreactor system. Bioresour Technol 99:7630–7635
Kishida N, Kim JH, Chen M, Sasaki H, Sud R (2003) Effectiveness of oxidation–reduction potential and pH as monitoring and control parameters for nitrogen removal in swine wastewater treatment by sequencing batch reactors. J Biosci Bioeng 96:285–290
McSwain Sturm BS, Irvine RL (2008) Dissolved oxygen as a key parameter to aerobic granule formation. Water Sci Technol 58:781–787
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2010EM063), Special Research and Development Environmental Protection Industry of Shandong Province (THB1002) and the Doctor Foundation of Shandong Province (BS2010NJ002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wei, D., Si, W., Zhang, Y. et al. Aerobic granulation and nitrogen removal with the effluent of internal circulation reactor in start-up of a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 35, 1489–1496 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-012-0738-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-012-0738-9