Formation of aerobic granular sludge and the influence of the pH on sludge characteristics in a SBR fed with brewery/bottling plant wastewater

Abstract

A laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated for 450 days to assess aerobic granule formation when treating brewery/bottling plant wastewater by consistent application of a feast/famine regime. The experiment was divided into three major periods according to the different operational conditions: (I) no pH control and strong fluctuations in organic loading rate (OLR) (1.18 ± 0.25 kgCOD·(m·day)), (II) pH control and aeration control strategy to reduce OLR fluctuations (1.45 ± 0.65 kgCOD·(m·day)) and (III) no pH control and stable OLR (1.42 ± 0.18 kgCOD·(m·day)). Aerobic granule formation was successful after 80 days and maintained during the subsequent 380 days. The aerobic granular sludge was characterized by SVI and SVI values below 60 mL.g and dominated by granular, dense structures. An oxygen uptake rate based aeration control strategy insured endogenous respiration at the end of the aerobic phase, resulting in stable SBR operation when the influent composition fluctuated. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction results show no significant enrichment of Accumulibacter or Competibacter during the granulation process. The 16S rRNA sequencing results indicate enrichment of other, possibly important species during aerobic granule formation while treating brewery wastewaters.

Aerobic granular sludge treating anaerobically pretreated brewery wastewater at different loading rates

“…After seven weeks, the reactors started to accumulate solids on granular surface and in the bulk mixed liquor ( Figure 1A and 1B) which is clearly visible in Figure 2A (i.e., 8 weeks). This was caused by changes in operational parameters (i.e., previously, 7d SRT control with 4 cycles a day 6h long) which however did not affected granular sludge stability, settling characteristics and effluent solids concentrations (Stes et al, 2018).…”

“…The author indicated an F/M ratio ranging from 0.5-1.4 kg-TCOD kg-TSSm -3 d -1 as optimal in long-term granular stability. Stes et al (2018) found that granular structure treating brewery wastewater is resistant to operational parameters fluctuation at a lower F/M ratio (i.e., 0.01-0.3 kg-TCOD kg-TSS -1 d -1 ) and pH. During one-step AGS brewery wastewater treatment the authors observed long-term granular stability, preserved performance and settling properties.…”

“…The AGS has been previously used for the treatment of brewery wastewater. For instance, Stes et al (2018) investigated the treatment of brewery wastewater with aerobic granular sludge operating at different OLR between 1.2 and 1.5 kg-TCOD m -3 d -1 , whereas Wang et al (2007) demonstrated the capability of high-rate degradation as well as simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorous removal on raw brewery wastewater. However, in these studies there is a lack of knowledge about the implementation of operating strategies to improve granular sludge stability preserving their integrity and nutrient removal performances in the long term.…”

A dynamically controlled anaerobic/aerobic granular sludge reactor efficiently treats brewery/bottling wastewater

“…Moreover, this technology efficiently treats various industrial wastewaters such as textile, dairy, abattoir, livestock, winery, palm oil mill, rubber, petrochemical, and landfill leachate (Caluwé et al 2017;Dobbeleers et al 2017;Nancharaiah & Kiran Kumar Reddy 2018). AGS has shown the most success when treating readily biodegradable industrial wastewater such as malting, brewery, and dairy (Schwarzenbeck et al 2005;Wang et al 2007;Corsino et al 2017;Stes et al 2018).…”

Biological nutrient removal from slaughterhouse wastewater via nitritation/denitritation using granular sludge: an onsite pilot demonstration

“…BNR by the use of granular sludge (GS) has been proposed as an energy‐efficient and sustainable technology for the treatment of synthetic, domestic and industrial wastewaters. Stable BNR‐GS processes rely on anaerobic (feast) feeding, to stimulate storage microorganisms, followed by an aerobic famine reaction .…”