Resource recovery in aerobic granular sludge systems: is it feasible or still a long way to go?

Carvalho, Clara de Amorim de; Santos, Amanda Ferreira dos; Ferreira, Tasso Jorge Tavares; Lira, Vitor Nairo Sousa Aguiar; Barros, Antônio Ricardo Mendes; Santos, André Bezerra dos

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129881

Cited by 32 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…WWTP Epe, operated by the Water Authority Vallei en Veluwe, treats the wastewater of the municipality of Epe (The Netherlands) and its surroundings. The wastewater is pre-treated with 3 mm screens and grit removal and treated in three 4500 m 3 AGS reactors with a diameter of 25 m and a depth of 9.2 m, designed and built by Royal HaskoningDHV. The reactors are operated in SBR mode with simultaneous anaerobic feeding/effluent discharge, aeration and settling.…”

Section: Description Of the Plant And Additional Influent Dosingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…AGS offers various advantages in comparison to conventional activated sludge systems, including lower space and energy requirements [2]. Furthermore, the granular sludge offers a number of resource recovery options [3]. The technology is operated as a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) consisting of simultaneous anaerobic plug-flow feeding and effluent withdrawal, followed by aeration and settling [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of an Increased Particulate COD Load on the Aerobic Granular Sludge Process: A Full Scale Study

2021

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High concentrations of particulate COD (pCOD) in the influent of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) systems are often associated to small granule diameter and a large fraction of flocculent sludge. At high particulate concentrations even granule stability and process performance might be compromised. However, pilot- or full-scale studies focusing on the effect of real wastewater particulates on AGS are scarce. This study describes a 3-month period of increased particulate loading at a municipal AGS wastewater treatment plant. The pCOD concentration of the influent increased from 0.5 g COD/L to 1.3 g COD/L, by adding an untreated slaughterhouse wastewater source to the influent. Sludge concentration, waste sludge production and COD and nutrient removal performance were monitored. Furthermore, to investigate how the sludge acclimatises to a higher influent particulate content, lipase and protease hydrolytic activities were studied, as well as the microbial community composition of the sludge. The composition of the granule bed and nutrient removal efficiency did not change considerably by the increased pCOD. Interestingly, the biomass-specific hydrolytic activities of the sludge did not increase during the test period either. However, already during normal operation the aerobic granules and flocs exhibited a hydrolytic potential that exceeded the influent concentrations of proteins and lipids. Microbial community analysis also revealed a high proportion of putative hydrolysing and fermenting organisms in the sludge, both during normal operation and during the test period. The results of this study highlight the robustness of the full-scale AGS process, which can bear a substantial increase in the influent pCOD concentration during an extended period.

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Section: Description Of the Plant And Additional Influent Dosingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of an Increased Particulate COD Load on the Aerobic Granular Sludge Process: A Full Scale Study

2021

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“…The water-holding capacity up to 99 gH 2 O/g sEPS for 1% w/w sEPSbased hydrogel (paragraph 3.2) suggests that these kind of hydrogels might be used as raw materials, or in combination with other materials, in chemical, paper and textile sectors (as coating agent) as well as soilenhancer/conditioner in agronomic sector to increase the water-holding capacity of soils affected by water scarcity and/or to reduce/control the leakage of fertilizers in plantations (Amorim de Carvalho et al, 2021;Lin et al, 2015;Milani et al, 2017;Pronk et al, 2017).…”

Section: Remarks On the Seps Recovery And Possible Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, the possibility to extract the sEPS from AGS, has opened new scenarios on biopolymers recovery from AGS (Amorim de Carvalho et al, 2021;Felz et al, 2016;Kehrein et al, 2020;Seviour et al, 2019) as well as the reduction of waste sludge disposal. Several methods have been tested for sEPS extraction from AGS and thermo-alkaline conditions with Na 2 CO 3 resulted in the highest yield factor compared to other techniques (Felz et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of structural extracellular polymeric substances (sEPS) from aerobic granular sludge: Insights on biopolymers characterization and hydrogel properties for potential applications

Campo

Carretti²,

Lubello³

et al. 2022

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Indeed, the effect of OLR on activated sludge was confirmed in this study, whereas opposite results were obtained referring to the AGS. A possible reason could be associated with substrate diffusion resistance observed in AGS, as the protection created by the AGS structure limited carbon concentration within these clusters [48]. Thus, a possible substrate limitation could be the reason of the lower PHA productivity observed in the AGS.…”

Section: Biopolymers Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biopolymers Recovery from Aerobic Granular Sludge Treating Industrial Wastewater: Preliminary Analysis of Different Carbon Routes for Organic Carbon Utilization

Traina¹,

Corsino²,

Torregrossa³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Valorization of excess sludge through the recovery of high-value products, such as biopolymers, could be a crucial step to implement circular economy principles in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). In this frame, the present study was aimed at evaluating the simultaneous production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), obtainable from the treatment of an agro-industrial wastewater. Two biological systems, one implementing aerobic granular sludge (AGS) and the other a conventional activated sludge operating as a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) were operated for 204 and 186 days, respectively. Both the systems involved a three-stage process for mixed microbial culture enrichment and biopolymers accumulation. The maximum biopolymers accumulation capacity was close to 0.60 mg gVSS-1 in the AGS when the enrichment reactor was operated at 3 kgCODm-3d-1, whereas in the SBR it was slightly more than half (0.35 mg gVSS-1). Biopolymers extracted from the AGS were mainly constituted by EPS (>70%), which percentage increased with the organic loading rate applied in the enrichment reactor up to 95%. In contrast, SBR enabled to obtain a higher PHA production (50% of the biopolymers). Results suggested that organic carbon was mainly channeled toward metabolic pathways for extracellular storing in AGS, likely as a consequence of metabolic stressors (e.g., hydraulic selection pressure, shear forces) applied for promoting aerobic granulation.

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Resource recovery in aerobic granular sludge systems: is it feasible or still a long way to go?

Cited by 32 publications

References 128 publications

Effect of an Increased Particulate COD Load on the Aerobic Granular Sludge Process: A Full Scale Study

Effect of an Increased Particulate COD Load on the Aerobic Granular Sludge Process: A Full Scale Study

Recovery of structural extracellular polymeric substances (sEPS) from aerobic granular sludge: Insights on biopolymers characterization and hydrogel properties for potential applications

Biopolymers Recovery from Aerobic Granular Sludge Treating Industrial Wastewater: Preliminary Analysis of Different Carbon Routes for Organic Carbon Utilization

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