Flocculent Sludge Research Articles

Selective adsorption of methylene blue dye by a flocculation sludge-derived adsorbent prepared by carboxymethyl chitosan-based flocculants

The flocculation of dyeing wastewater generated a large amount of sludge that was often disposed as refractory hazardous waste. The resource utilization of flocculation sludge was of great significance in terms of low treatment cost of sludge, low environmental risk and high usage efficiency of reactive dyes. Herein, a flocculation sludge-derived (FSD) adsorbent was prepared via cross-linking of flocculation sludge yielding by carboxymethyl chitosan-based flocculants and dyes. FSD adsorbent had excellent selective adsorption performance for methylene blue (MB) treatment. The highest removal rate of MB and adsorption capacity of FSD adsorbent were 96.48 % and 354.7066 mg/g, attributing to its rich functional groups, negative charges and special micropore structure. FSD adsorbent owned the favorable regeneration efficiency and stability. Its removal rate of MB was still above 71.8 % after 6 regeneration-adsorption cycles. Its leaching rate of dyes was only 0.0016 mg/mg that was rather lower than common dried flocculation sludge. The adsorption processes of FSD adsorbent were complex in accordance with its characteristics, adsorption isotherms, adsorption kinetics and theoretical calculation. Multiple adsorption mechanisms were present in the treatment of dyeing wastewater by FSD adsorbent. The resource utilization of flocculation sludge, as adsorbents, was a potential candidate in field application.

Rapid start-up of mainstream partial denitrification /anammox and enhanced nitrogen removal through inoculation of precultured biofilm for treating low-strength municipal sewage

This study investigated the rapid start-up of mainstream partial denitrification coupled with anammox (PD/A) and nitrogen removal performance by inoculating precultured PD/A biofilm. The results showed mainstream PD/A in the anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic (A2O) process was rapidly established within 30 days. Nitrogen removal efficiency (NRE) improved by 23.8 % contrasted to the traditional A2O process. The mass balance showed that anammox contribution to total nitrogen (TN) removal were maintained at 37.9 %∼55.7 %, and reducing hydraulic retention time (HRT) strengthened simultaneously denitrification and anammox activity. The microbial community showed that the dominant bacteria such as denitrifying bacteria (DNBs) and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) both in biofilm and flocculent sludge (floc), integrating with anammox bacteria (AnAOB) in biofilm might lead to enhanced nitrogen removal. Overall, this study offered a fast start-up strategy of mainstream PD/A with enhanced nitrogen removal, which are valuable for upgradation and renovation of existed municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Strengthening the enrichment of anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria in biofilms through sludge concentration control

Controlling sludge concentration is an effective means to achieve PN. In this article, the reactor used domestic sewage as raw water and promoted the high enrichment of anammox bacteria by controlling the MLVSS of flocs to 1000–1500 mg/L and increasing the concentration of filler sludge. The measures to reduce the concentration of flocculent sludge increased the proliferation rate of the biofilm and provided sufficient substrate for AnAOB. After 102 days of operation, the abundance of Candidatus Brocadia increased from 0.43% during inoculation to 23.56% in phase VI. The ability of the microbial community to utilize energy metabolism and produce ATP was significantly improved, and the appropriate distribution of anammox bacteria and nitrifying, denitrifying bacteria in the ecological niche led to its high enrichment. In summary, this study proposes a strategy to promote the high enrichment of anammox bacteria in mainstream domestic sewage without adding any chemicals.

Microbial Biomass in Mesophilic and Thermophilic High-Rate Biodigestion of Sugarcane Vinasse: Similar in Quantity, Different in Composition

This study compared the behavior of the biomass in two fixed-film anaerobic reactors operated under equivalent organic loading rates but at different temperatures, i.e., 30 °C (RMM) and 55 °C (RMT). The reactors were fed with sugarcane vinasse and molasses (both fermented) in a simulation of sequential periods of season and off-season. The dynamics of biomass growth and retention, as well as the microbial composition, were assessed throughout 171 days of continuous operation, coupled with an additional 10-day test assessing the microbial activity in the bed region. Despite the different inoculum sources used (mesophilic granular vs. thermophilic flocculent sludge types), the biomass growth yield was identical (0.036–0.038 g VSS g−1COD) in both systems. The retention rates (higher in RMT) were regulated according to the initial amount of biomass provided in the inoculation, resulting in similar amounts of total retained biomass (46.8 vs. 43.3 g VSS in RMT and RMM) and biomass distribution patterns (30–35% in the feeding zone) at the end of the operation. Meanwhile, hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis mediated by Methanothermobacter coupled to syntrophic acetate oxidation prevailed in RMT, while the Methanosaeta-mediated acetoclastic pathway occurred in RMM. The results show that different anaerobic consortia can behave similarly in quantitative terms when subjected to equivalent organic loads, regardless of the prevailing methane-producing pathway. The community grows and reaches a balance (or a given cell activity level) defined by the amount of substrate available for conversion. In other words, while the metabolic pathway may differ, the endpoint (the amount of biomass) remains the same if operational stability is maintained.

A comprehensive comparison of microbial communities between aerobic granular sludge and flocculent sludge for nutrient removal in full-scale wastewater treatment plants

Understanding the microbial community structure of sludge is crucial for improving the design, operation and optimisation of full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study aimed to have a comprehensive comparison of microbial communities between aerobic granular sludge and flocculent sludge from two full-scale sequential batch reactors-based WWTPs with nutrient removal for the first time. To better understand key functional bacteria such as polyphosphate accumulating bacteria (PAOs), competitive bacteria such as glycogen accumulating bacteria (GAOs) and nitrifying bacteria for both nitrogen and phosphorus removal, another two full-scale WWTPs with only carbon (C) removal and C and nitrogen (N) removal were compared too. It was found that the richness and diversity of the microbial population in sludge increased with pollutant removal from only C, C and N, to C,N, P removal. For C, N P removal, granule structure led to a more diverse and rich microbial community structure than flocculent structure. Although more abundant nitrifying bacteria were enriched in granular sludge than flocculent sludge, the abundance of total putative PAOs was equivalent. However, the most typical putative PAOs such as Tetrasphaera and Candidatus Accumulibacter seemed to be more correlated with biological phosphorus removal performance, which might be more proper to be used as an indication for P removal potential. The higher abundance of GAOs in flocculent sludge with better phosphorus removal performance might suggest that further investigation is needed to understand the functions of GAOs. In addition, the equivalent abundances of PAOs in the WWTPs with only C removal and with C, N, and P removal, respectively, indicate that many newly reported putative PAOs might not contribute to P removal. This study provides insight into the microbial communities and functional bacteria in aerobic granular sludge and flocculent sludge in full-scale SBRs, which can provide microbes-informed optimisation of reactor operation for better nutrient removal.

Rapid formation mechanism of SAD granular sludge: From flocculated activated sludge to granular sludge

The SAD (Simultaneous Anammox and Denitrification) process combines anammox with denitrification to achieve nitrogen removal and carbon reduction. In this study, the flocculent activated sludge in the secondary sedimentation tank of the traditional sewage treatment plant was used as the research object. Under the action of high NH4+, adding reflux, and adjusting HRT in the UASB reactor, the transformation from flocculent sludge to SAD granular sludge was quickly realized. The results showed that a relatively stable SAD granular sludge system could be formed after 250 days of operation, and the system with reflux was more resistant to changes in the external environment than the system without reflux. In the SAD system, TN Removal Rate (TNRE) ≈ 90 %, Carbon Removal Rate (CRR) ≈ 90 %. After 3D-EEM, FTIR, and analysis of protein secondary structure, it was found that the particle stability and aggregation of the SAD stage were significantly improved compared with the previous two stages. The bacterial community structure had obvious vertical heterogeneity, mainly AnAOB (Ca. Kuenenia≈30 %) and denitrifying bacteria (Comamonas≈20 %). When the temperature drops sharply, the performance of SAD can be effectively restored by adding reflux and reducing the carbon source.

Design and application of environmentally friendly composite magnetic particles for microplastic extraction from water media

The widespread presence of microplastic particles in aquatic environments requires methods of their extraction from water for counting and analysis and for water purification technologies. In this study, new magnetic composite nanoparticles (FNP) were designed, characterized and explored to be used as magnetic seeds for extracting polyethylene terephthalate microparticles (MPET, 5–30 μm) from water by magnetic sedimentation. The engineered seeds have a complex morphology, with magnetic cores of Fe3O4 dispersed in an environmentally compatible polymer matrix of silicon dioxide, chitosan or gelatine. Mechanisms of the heteroaggregation of FNP and MPET are considered and the main influencing factors (particles concentrations, major ions, duration of the preliminary exposure and of the sedimentation) are studied. The heteroaggregates are removed from water using a gradient magnetic field (Bzmax = 0.44 T) generated by a system of permanent magnets. The mass concentration of magnetic nanoseeds for more than 98 % capture of PET particles in pure and in salted water after 0.5 hour of magnetic sedimentation was detected to be 0.002 g/L. It is two orders of magnitude lower than that reported for uncovered magnetite-based particles. Using magnetic composite seeds with ecofriendly coatings allows to perform a high efficient magnetic separation of microplastic particles from water both for analytical purpose and for potential water cleaning technologies, while strongly reducing the synthetic flocculant sludge volume.

Utilizing anaerobic substrate distribution for growth of aerobic granular sludge in continuous-flow reactors

The development of continuous flow reactors (CFRs) employing aerobic granular sludge (AGS) for the retrofit of existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using a continuous-flow activated sludge (CFAS) system has garnered increasing interest. This follows the worldwide adoption of AGS technology in sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). The better settleability of AGS compared to AS allows for process intensification of existing wastewater treatment plants without the difficult conversion of often relatively shallow CFRs to deeper AGS-SBRs.To retrofit existing CFAS systems with AGS, achieving both increased hydraulic capacity and enhanced biological nutrient removal necessitates the formation of granular sludge based on the same selective pressures applied in AGS-SBRs. Previous efforts have focussed mainly on the selective wasting of flocculent sludge and retaining granular sludge to drive aerobic granulation.In this study a pilot-scale CFR was developed to best mimic the implementation of the granulation mechanisms of full-scale AGS-SBRs. The pilot-scale reactor was fed with pre-settled municipal wastewater. We established metrics to assess the degree to which the proposed mechanisms were implemented in the pilot-scale CFR and compared them to data from full-scale AGS-SBRs, specifically with respect to the anaerobic distribution of granule forming substrates (GFS). The selective pressures for granular sludge formation were implemented through inclusion of anaerobic upflow selectors with a water depth of 2.5 meters, which yielded a sludge with properties similar to AGS from full-scale SBRs. In comparison to the CFAS system at Harnaschpolder WWTP treating the same pre-settled wastewater, a more than twofold increase in volumetric removal capacity for both phosphorus and nitrogen was achieved. The use of a completely mixed anaerobic selector, as opposed to an anaerobic upflow selector, caused a shift in EBPR activity from the largest towards the smallest size class, while nitrification was majorly unaffected. Anaerobic selective feeding via bottom-feeding is, therefore, favorable for the long-term stability of AGS, especially for less acidified wastewater. The research underlines the potential of AGS for enhancing the hydraulic and biological treatment capacity of existing CFAS systems.

Strong suppression of silver nanoparticles on antibiotic resistome in anammox process

This study comprehensively deciphered the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on anammox flocculent sludge, including nitrogen removal performance, microbial community structure, functional enzyme abundance, antibiotic resistance gene (ARGs) dissemination, and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) mechanisms. After long-term exposure to 0–2.5 mg/L AgNPs for 200 cycles, anammox performance significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the relative abundances of dominant Ca. Kuenenia and anammox-related enzymes (hzsA, nirK) increased compared to the control (P < 0.05). For antibiotic resistome, ARG abundance hardly changed with 0–0.5 mg/L AgNPs but decreased by approximately 90% with 1.5–2.5 mg/L AgNPs. More importantly, AgNPs effectively inhibited MGE-mediated HGT of ARGs. Additionally, structural equation model (SEM) disclosed the underlying relationship between AgNPs, the antibiotic resistome, and the microbial community. Overall, AgNPs suppressed the anammox-driven nitrogen cycle, regulated the microbial community, and prevented the spread of ARGs in anammox flocs. This study provides a theoretical baseline for an advanced understanding of the ecological roles of nanoparticles and resistance elements in engineered ecosystems.

Self-cultivating anammox granules for enhancing wastewater nitrogen removal in nitrification–denitrification flocculent sludge system

The feasibility of self-cultivating anammox granules for enhancing wastewater nitrogen removal was investigated in a nitrification–denitrification flocculent sludge system. Desirable nitrogen removal efficiency of 84 ± 4 % was obtained for the influent carbon to nitrogen ratio of 1–1.3 (NH4+-N: 150–200 mg N/L) via alternate anaerobic/oxic/anoxic mode. Meanwhile, some red granular sludge was formed in the system. The abundance and activity of anaerobic ammonia oxidation bacteria (AnAOB) increased from ‘not detected’ in seed sludge to 0.57 % and 29.4 ± 0.7 mg N/(g mixed liquor volatile suspended solids·h) in granules, respectively, suggesting successful cultivation of anammox granules. Furthermore, some denitrifying bacteria with capability of partial denitrification were enriched, such as Candidatus Competibacter (2.45 %) and Thauera (5.75 %), which could cooperate with AnAOB, facilitating AnAOB enrichment. Anammox was dominant in nitrogen removal with the contribution to nitrogen removed above 68.8 ± 0.3 %. The strategy of self-cultivating anammox granules could promote the application of anammox.

Enhanced nitrogen removal in the upgrading of municipal wastewater treatment plants by using zero-valent iron-modified biofilm carriers and clinoptilolite-modified biofilm carriers

A municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was initially operated as an anaerobic/aerobic (A/O) process and designed with the second grade of the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002, Table S1). To upgrade for meeting the first grade A of the GB18918-2002 (COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, and TN are 50 mg/L, 10 mg/L, 5/8 mg/L, and 15 mg/L, respectively), the original process was reformed to a process of anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic-integrated free-moving biofilm and activated sludge (A2O-IFFAS) by filling zero-valent iron (ZVI)-modified biofilm carriers into anoxic bioreactors, as well as clinoptilolite-modified biofilm carriers into aerobic bioreactors. ZVI-modified biofilm carriers were used to enhance denitrification, whereas clinoptilolite-modified biofilm carriers were used to enhance nitrification. The effluent COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, and TN of the new process were 26 ± 14 mg/L, 7 ± 1 mg/L, 1.3 ± 0.2/4.7 ± 0.7 mg/L (summer/winter), and 12.1 ± 2.4 mg/L, respectively, and their removal efficiencies were 95 %, 96.1 %, 90.1 %/97.3 %, and 78.8 %, respectively, which meet the first grade A of the GB18918-2002. Compared with flocculent sludge, the biofilm of ZVI-modified biofilm carriers increased the relative abundance of Hyphomicrobium (facultative autotrophic denitrifying bacteria) from 1.5 % to 8.7 %, the biofilm of clinoptilolite-modified biofilm carriers increased the relative abundance of nitrifying bacteria (composed of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira) from 4.0 % to 39.2 %. The case demonstrated that the A2O-IFFAS equipped with ZVI-modified biofilm carriers and clinoptilolite-modified biofilm carriers could significantly increase the nitrogen removal efficiency and had a good prospect for upgrading municipal WWTPs.

Influencing factors on the activity of an enriched Nitrospira culture with granular morphology

ABSTRACT Nitrospira is a common genus of nitrite-oxidising bacteria (NOB) found in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). To identify the key factors influencing the composition of NOB communities, research was conducted using both sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and continuous flow reactor under different conditions. High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that Nitrospira (18.79% in R1 and 25.77% in R3) was the dominant NOB under low dissolved oxygen (DO) and low nitrite ( NO 2 − -N) concentrations, while Nitrobacter (21.26% in R2) was the dominant NOB under high DO and high NO 2 − -N concentrations. Flocculent and granule sludge were cultivated with Nitrospira as the dominant genus. Compared to Nitrospira flocculent sludge, Nitrospira granule sludge had higher inhibition threshold concentrations for free ammonia (FA) and free nitrous acid (FNA). It was more likely to resist adverse environmental disturbances. Furthermore, the effects of environmental factors such as temperature, pH, and DO on the activity of Nitrospira granular sludge were also studied. The results showed that the optimum temperature and pH for Nitrospira granular sludge were 36°C and 7.0, respectively. Additionally, Nitrospira granular sludge showed a higher dissolved oxygen half-saturation constant (Ko) of 3.67 ± 0.71 mg/L due to its morphological characteristics. However, the majority of WWTPs conditions do not meet the conditions for the Nitrospira granular sludge. Thus, it can be speculated that future development of aerobic partial nitrification granular sludge may automatically eliminate the influence of Nitrospira. This study provides a theoretical basis for a deeper understanding of Nitrospira and the development of future water treatment processes.

Performance of a continuous micro-oxygen up-flow sludge bed reactor for assimilation of partial nitrification/anammox sludge into a CANON granular-floc system

CANON process was established in a micro-oxygen up-flow sludge bed reactor through one-step inoculation of partial nitrification/anammox sludge. The process was divided into three stages according to the influent NH+4-N concentrations. The position of aeration played a vital role as low DO concentration and sludge loss showed evident negative effects. Placing the aeration device above the sludge bed significantly enhanced the stability of the system, and the DO concentrations were maintained between 0.4 and 0.8 mg/L. The total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency reached ∼70% within 5 days in stage I, yet the reaction stoichiometric ratios deviated from theoretical values. As the activity of anaerobic anammox bacteria (AnAOB) exceeded ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in stage III, the maximum TN removal rate reached 350 mg N/ L·d and the TN removal efficiency was retained at a relatively high value of 83%. Flocculent sludge converged into a granular-floc hybrid system with the percentage of sludge mass for particle size between 0.4 and 1 mm increased from 0% to 43.48%, and the percentage of sludge mass for particle size between 0 and 0.2 mm remained at 22.76%. Following 135 days of continuous operation, an interaction balance between AOB and AnAOB was reached with high activities and dominant abundance while nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were suppressed.

Rapid, stable, and highly-efficient development of salt-tolerant aerobic granular sludge by inoculating magnetite-assisted mycelial pellets

Long cultivation time hinders the industrial applications of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) in treatment of hypersaline wastewater. Mycelial pellets (MPs) have been used to efficiently strengthen the flocculent sludge aggregation and accelerate the formation of AGS. However, the MPs-based AGS was easily crushed or fragmented into several small pieces/granules that brought the uncertainty and extended the transition process to form mature AGS. In this study, magnetite was used to strengthen MPs (halotolerant fungus Cladosporium tenuissimum NCSL-XY8), and co-culture and adsorption type of magnetite-assisted mycelial pellets (CMMPs and AMMPs) were prepared and used for acceleration of salt-tolerant aerobic granular sludge (SAGS) cultivation under 3% salinity conditions. Compared to inoculating MPs, the inoculation of either CMMPs or AMMPs could stably transition to mature SAGS without evident fragmentation, which obviously increased the certainty and stability of SAGS formation. Also, highly-efficient simultaneous nitrogen and carbon removal (∼98% TOC and ∼80% TN removal) could be reached in 8 days. Typically, the granules maintained perfect characteristics (D50 > 1300 μm, D10 > 350 μm, SVI30 < 45 mL/g, and SVI30/SVI5 = 1.0) during the whole cultivation/transition processes (Day 0–55) by using the inoculum of CMMPs. ITS rDNA sequencing revealed the inoculated fungus Cladosporium tenuissimum played key roles in the formation of SAGS. All the phenomena indicated the rapid, stable, and highly-efficient start-up of SAGS could be successfully realized by inoculating CMMPs.

Comparative analysis of membrane fouling mechanisms induced by operation modes of membrane bioreactors with aerobic granular sludge

This experimental work investigated fouling characteristics induced by two different configurations of membrane bioreactor (MBR), which are submerged MBR and sidestream MBR with aerobic granular sludge. Submerged membrane bioreactor with granular sludge (Sub-MGSBR) ran the longest operation time 61 days with a steady overall TMP increase rate; Sidestream membrane bioreactor with granular sludge (SS-MGSBR) performed only 39 days, which exhibited Sub-MGSBR had more efficiently retarding membrane fouling. In both membrane bioreactors with flocculent sludge (MFSBRs) as a control, membrane foulants were compact, and cake resistance was the dominant fouling factor. In MGSBRs, however, pore blocking resistance turned out the key fouling factor. Especially in Sub-MGSBR, it went beyond 75%, and there was the most conglomeration of microorganisms of foulants with the highest porosity. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content of foulants proved membrane fouling was hardly just for granules accumulation into cake but microorganisms’ growth in MGSBRs.

Pilot-scale Evaluation of an Anaerobic/Anoxic/Oxic Process for Nitrogen Removal from Sewage Using Metagenomic Sequencing

A modified pilot plant with two sequencing batch reactors on the strength of utilizing the inner carbon supply and adding suspended carriers was operated for 280 d to analyze nitrogen removal performance and microorganism community. Despite a low chemical oxygen demand (COD)/total nitrogen (TN) ratio of 3.5, the TN in the effluent decreased from 37.2 to 10.4 mg N/L. High-throughput sequencing indicated significant differences in the abundance of the phylum Actinobacteria (p&lt;0.0001), Firmicutes (p&lt;0.0001), Bacteroidetes (p&lt;0.001), Uroviricota (p&lt;0.0001) and Planctomycetes (p&lt;0.0001) between the anoxic-carrier biofilms and flocculent sludge. Quantitative PCR revealed that denitrification and anammox genes were additional abundant in the anoxic-carrier biofilms than flocculent sludge (narG: p&lt;0.0001; nirS: p&lt;0.01; narH: p&lt;0.01; norB: p&lt;0.0001; hzsB: p&lt;0.01; hdh: p&lt;0.01). Thus, enrichment with denitrification and anammox bacteria might improve nitrogen removal; this was supported by KEGG pathway annotation. Collectively, this study suggests that anoxic-carrier biofilms might enhance nitrogen removal through partial denitrification and anammox process in CWWTPs.

Coupling physical selection with biological selection for the startup of a pilot-scale, continuous flow, aerobic granular sludge reactor without treatment interruption

This study removes two technical constraints for transitioning full-scale activated sludge infrastructure to continuous flow, aerobic granular sludge (AGS) facilities. The first of these is the loss of treatment capacity as a result of the rapid washout of flocculent sludge inventory and in turn the potential loss of nitrification during initial AGS reactor startup. The second is the physical selector design which currently is limited to either the complex sequencing batch reactor selection or sidestream hydrocyclones. Briefly, real wastewater data collected from this study suggested that by increasing the surface overflow rate (SOR) of an upflow clarifier to 10 m h −1, the clarifier can be taken advantage of as a physical selector to separate flocculant sludge from AGS. Redirecting the physical selector underflow and overflow sludge to the feast and famine zones of a treatment train, respectively, can create a biological selection that not only promotes AGS formation but also safeguards the effluent quality throughout the AGS reactor startup period. This study provides a novel concept for economically implementing continuous flow AGS within existing full-scale, continuous flow treatment trains.

Performance and microbial characteristics of completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite process in different types of reactors

There are various types of reactors for completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process, but the advantages and disadvantages of different types of reactors and their scope of application still need to be studied. In this paper, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze the microbial characteristics of four CANON reactors with similar and stable influent water quality conditions, and the applicable scenarios of different types of CANON reactors was clarified. At the gene level, the proportions of aerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AerAOB), anaerobic ammonia oxidation bacteria (AnAOB) and denitrifying bacteria in a flocculent sludge sequencing batch reactor (FSBR), a membrane bioreactor (MBR), a biological aerated filter (BAF) and a granular sludge sequencing batch reactor (GSBR) were 16.88 %, 3.49 %, 19.36 % and 29.67 %; 9.51 %, 4.72 %, 5 % and 27.75 %; 7.12 %, 11.5 %, 6.81 % and 13.6 %. The results showed that FSBR was low nitrogen removal load and low stability in practical application. MBR can treat different concentrations of ammonia nitrogen wastewater by controlling the influent load. BAF can treat ammonia nitrogen wastewater with moderate influent load. GSBR has high removal load and can treat high ammonia nitrogen wastewater.

Properties of alginate-like exopolymers recovered from flocculent and granular microbial sludges of different biological treatment systems treating real municipal wastewater

Treatment of excess microbial sludge and its safe disposal is a major challenge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) due to pathogens, economic and regulatory issues. There is a considerable interest in developing newer technologies for the excess sludge treatment and recovering value-added products. This study investigated recovery of biopolymers from the microbial sludge generated in three different biological treatment systems such as conventional activated sludge process (ASP), activated sludge sequencing batch reactor (AS-SBR) and aerobic granular sludge SBR (AGS-SBR). Alginate-like exopolymer (ALE) was the dominant biopolymer in AS and AGS irrespective of the employed treatment system. ALE content was determined to be 32%, 39% and 44% in the microbial sludge of ASP, AS-SBR and AGS-SBR, respectively. ALE extraction markedly decreased the biosolids content by up to 54%. ALE recovered from AS harvested from ASP had poor gelation properties and did not form beads with calcium. Whereas, the ALE recovered from AS and AGS from the SBRs exhibited gelation properties and formed nice beads with calcium ions. The biopolymer recovered from the microbial sludge developed in the SBRs contained high guluronic (G) acid in the form of poly-guluronic acid (GG) blocks, responsible for excellent gelation property. Extraction of biopolymers mitigates sludge management challenges, pathogens-spread and improves resource recovery in WWTPs.

Magnetite-based nanoparticles and nanocomposites for recovery of overloaded anaerobic digesters

The effect of magnetite nanoparticles and nanocomposites (magnetite nanoparticles impregnated into graphene oxide) supplement on the recovery of overloaded laboratory batch anaerobic reactors was assessed using two types of starting inoculum: anaerobic granular sludge (GS) and flocculent sludge (FS). Both nanomaterials recovered methane production at a dose of 0.27 g/L within 40 days in GS. Four doses of magnetite nanoparticles from 0.075 to 1 g/L recovered the process in FS systems between 30 and 50 days relaying on the dose. The presence of nanomaterials helped to reverse the effect of volatile fatty acids inhibition and enabled microbial communities to recover but also favoured the development of certain microorganisms over others. In GS reactors, the methanogenic population changed from being mostly acetoclastic (Methanothrix soehngenii) to being dominated by hydrogenotrophic species (Methanobacterium beijingense). Nanomaterial amendment may serve as a preventative measure or provide an effective remedial solution for system recovery following overloading.