Aerobic granulation

Le Ngoc Thuan
** 김 투안 **
 Aerobic granulation as a novel
environmental biotechnology is
tailored for treating a wide variety of
wastewaters

 Similar to anaerobic granulation,

aerobic granulation is believed to be
a microbial self-immobilization
process that is driven by selection
pressures in SBR
 Anaerobic granulation technology had been well developed for
high strength organic wastewater treatment in the past two
decades.

 However, anaerobic granulation technology has drawbacks

• long start-up period,
• high operation temperature and
• no application for low-strength organic wastewater.
 The biological treatment of wastewater in
the waste water treatment plant often
accomplished by means of the application
of conventional activated sludge systems.

 These systems generally require large

surface areas for implantation of the
treatment and biomass separation units
due to the usually poor settling properties
of the sludge.
 Previous research showed that aerobic granules
had

• compact and strong microbial structure,

excellent settleability,
• high biomass retention and
• ability to handle high strength wastewater.
• The cost can be reduced by at least 20%
and space requirements can be reduced by
as much as 75% (de Kreuk et al., 2004[6]).

 It has been believed that aerobic granulation is

independent on the characteristics of substrate,
e.g. aerobic granules can grow on acetate,
ethanol, glucose, phenol and synthetic
wastewater
 Composition of synthetic wastewater (SWW)
(Yarlagadda et. al., Formation of aerobic granules in the presence of a synthetic
chelating agent. Environmental pollution 153 (2008) 37-43) modified
Chemical Concentration (mM)
CH3COONa 2560mg/L
MgSO4.7H2O 25mg/L
CaCl2.2H2O 30mg/L
NH4Cl 200 mg/L
K2HPO4 45 mg/L
Seed sludge 500ml of wastewater containing activated sludge flocs
Nutrient sol’n 1ml
Using tap water for reactor

Nutrient solution
FeCl3 900.44mg / FeCl3.6H2O (MW 207.3) 1499.62mg
H3BO3 150mg
CuSO4’5H2O 30mg
KI 180mg
MnCl2’ 4H2O 60mg
ZnSO4’7H20 120mg
CoCl2’7H2O 150mg / CoCl2’6H2O (MW 237.93) 139.45mg
MoO3 36mg

To 1000ml with D.W

 (3)
(2)

5cm

(3)
(8) (1) Feeding tank, synthetic wastewater
(2) Feeding pump
(3) Programming time controller
(1)
(4) Oxygen supply aerator
(5) Air flow meter
(7)
(6) Air diffuser
(7) Aerobic reactor
(8) Over loading control
(9) 1.2m (9) Effluent / sampling port
(10) Sludge discharge

(4) (5)
(6) (10)

J.-H. Tay, Q.-S. Liu and Y. Liu Microscopic observation of aerobic granulation in sequential aerobic sludge blanket
reactor. Journal of applied Microbiology 2001, 91, 168-175
Effect of settling time

R1: 20min
R2: 15min
R3: 10min
R4: 5min
Filamentous bacteria and granular formation
 Substrate concentration and filamentous bacteria

Filamentous
microorganisms are
slow-growing

they have very low

maximum specific growth
rate (Amax).
 Strong evidence suggests that DO
deficiency favors filamentous growth

 DO concentration is maintained
between 2.0 and 5.0 mg/L
Researches in
Environmental
Engineering Lab
From lab-scale to large-scale…

Constructed wetlands
Thank you for your attention!