Abstract
The current study was to evaluate the influence of starvation phase on surface negative charge, relative hydrophobicity, extra-cellular polymer substances (EPS) and the formation mechanism of aerobic granules. Granules with encouraging settling properties occurred in the reactor about 7 days after the inoculation. The surface negative charge decreased from 0.203 to 0.023 meq g VSS −1 and the relative hydrophobicity increased from 28.8 to 60.3% during the granulation period. Concentrations of protein and carbohydrate decreased from 18.0 to 7.1 and 7.0 to 2.9 mg g VSS −1, respectively in the first period. And from day 13, those values were observed in the range of 5.8–8.6 and 2.9–5.6 mg g VSS −1, respectively. The EPS especially protein concentrations well correlated with surface charge and relatively hydrophobicity. It was concluded that a reasonable amount of EPS should be controlled to form and maintain aerobic granules. It was proposed that aerobic granulation was initiated by starvation phase and then enhanced by anaerobic metabolism.
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