The variability of the fractal dimension value can be used as an indicator stability aerobic granular sludge.

Four selected azo dyes (acid orange 6, acid orange 7, methyl orange and methyl red) were completely decolourised in the presence of anaerobic granular sludge, while only methyl red was degraded in aerobic conditions using a conventional activated sludge. Additional experiments with culture broth devoid of cells showed that anaerobic decolourisation of azo dyes was performed by extracellular red...

The effect of the absence of trace elements on the conversion of a mixture of volatile fatty acids by a distillery anaerobic granular sludge was investigated. Two UASB reactors were operated under identical operational conditions except for the influent trace metal concentrations, during 140 days. Experiments were carried out in three periods, where different organic loading rates (OLR) were ap...

A three-dimensional (3-D) diffusion-reaction model was used to assess the effects of nitrifiers growing in cell clusters on the apparent oxygen half-saturation coefficients in activated sludge flocs. The model allows conciliation of seemingly contradictory reports by several research groups. Although intrinsic half-saturation coefficients (i.e., not affected by diffusion) show a better affinity...

The wastewater treatment with a two-phase expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) system for anaerobic degradation of acetate, benzoate, terephtalate and p-toluate from purified terephtalic acid (PTA) production was studied. The feasibility and effectiveness of the system was evaluated in terms of organic oxidation by chemical oxygen demand (COD), gas production, bacterial adaptability and stabilit...

This study investigated bioreduction of selenite by anaerobic granular sludge in the presence of heavy metals and analyzed the fate of the bioreduced selenium and the heavy metals. Selenite bioreduction was not significantly inhibited in the presence of Pb(II) and Zn(II). More than 92% of 79 mg/L selenite was removed by bioreduction even in the presence of 150 mg/L of Pb(II) or 400mg/L of Zn(II...

The granular sludge process is an effective, low-footprint alternative to conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment. The architecture of the microbial granules allows the co-existence of different functional groups, e.g., nitrifying and denitrifying communities, which permits compact reactor design. However, little is known about the factors influencing community assembly in granular s...

Textile effluents are characterised by high content of recalcitrant compounds and are often discharged (together with municipal wastewater to increase their treatability) into centralized wastewater treatment plants with a complex treatment scheme. This paper reports the results achieved adopting a granular sludge system (sequencing batch biofilter granular reactor - SBBGR) to treat mixed munic...

Appropriate storage strategies were helpful in keeping the integrity and activity as well as in promoting the engineering application of granular sludge. The particle size distribution, composition of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), and activity of shortcut nitrification aerobic granular sludge (SNAGS) of the different storage strategies (15 °C with intermittent aeration, 4 °C, −20 °...

The textile processing plants utilize a wide variety of dyes and other chemicals such as acids, bases, salts, detergents, sizes, oxidants, mercerizing and finishing chemicals. Many of these are not retained in the final product and are discharged in the effluent. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the performance of EGSB (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) reactor to treat non-acid...