Organic substrate diffusibility governs microbial community composition, nutrient removal performance and kinetics of granulation of aerobic granular sludge.

ABSTRACT: Basic understanding of formation of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) has mainly been derived from lab-scale systems with simple influents containing only highly diffusible volatile fatty acids (VFA) as organic substrate. This study compares start-up of AGS systems fed by different synthetic and municipal wastewaters (WW), characterised by increasing complexity in terms of non-diffusible organic substrate. Four AGS reactors were started with the same inoculum activated sludge and operated for one year. The development of AGS, settling characteristics, nutrient and substrate removal performance as well as microbial community composition were monitored. Our results indicate that the higher the content of diffusible organic substrate in the WW, the faster the formation of AGS. The presence of non

SUBMITTER: Layer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6614711 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature