The rapid cultivation strategy of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) for simultaneous phenol degradation and ammonium oxidation was studied in a sequence batch reactor (SBR). The short-term inhibitory kinetics of phenol was studied through batch experiments. For the sodium acetate fed AGS, the phenol inhibition constants (Ki) of specific oxygen utilization rate by heterotrophic bacteria (SOURh) was 508.6 mg/L. The Ki of specific ammonium utilization rate (SAUR) was 232.3 mg/L. After 28 days' acclimatization, the phenol and NH4+-N removal rates of the SBR reached 94.0% and 96.4% when the influent phenol and NH4+-N concentrations were 1000 and 33.5 mg/L, respectively. The phenol removal loading rate was 1.69 kg/(m3·d). For the mature phenol&ammonium degrading AGS, the polysaccharide (PS) and protein (PN) concentrations were 247.4 ± 10.3 and 68.6 ± 6.5 mg/g VSS, respectively. The functional groups analysis showed that the amount of OH, NH, CO and CC groups remained unchanged in the mature phenol&ammonium degrading AGS.
Keywords: Aerobic granular sludge; Extracellular polymeric substance; High phenol concentration; Kinetic analysis; Wastewater treatment.
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