Advanced low-strength wastewater treatment, side-stream phosphorus recovery, and in situ sludge reduction with aerobic granular sludge

Qiulai He; Xiaohui Yan; Zhiyi Xie; Peng Xu; Zhidong Fu; Jinfeng Li; Liang Liu; Peng Bi; Baokun Xu; Jingwei Ma

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129574

Advanced low-strength wastewater treatment, side-stream phosphorus recovery, and in situ sludge reduction with aerobic granular sludge

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Oct:386:129574. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129574. Epub 2023 Jul 26.

Authors

Qiulai He¹, Xiaohui Yan², Zhiyi Xie², Peng Xu³, Zhidong Fu², Jinfeng Li², Liang Liu², Peng Bi², Baokun Xu⁴, Jingwei Ma³

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Engineering Research Center of Water Security Technology and Application, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China; Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: qiulaihe@hnu.edu.cn.
² Hunan Engineering Research Center of Water Security Technology and Application, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
³ Hunan Engineering Research Center of Water Security Technology and Application, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China; Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
⁴ Agricultural Water Conservancy Department, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan 430010, China.

PMID: 37506946
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129574

Abstract

Modern paradigm has upgraded wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to water resources recovery facilities (WRRFs), where aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is a sewage treatment technology with promising phosphorus recovery (PR) potential. Herein, the AGS-based simultaneous nitrification, denitrification, and phosphorus removal coupling side-stream PR process (AGS-SNDPRr) was developed with municipal wastewater. Results revealed that AGS always maintained good structural stability, and pollutant removal was unaffected and effective after 40 days of anaerobic phosphorus-rich liquid extraction (fixed rate of 30%). The AGS-SNDPRr achieved a stable phosphorus recovery efficiency of 63.40%, and the side-stream PR further exaggerated in situ sludge reduction by 7.7-10%. Apart from responses of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), the Matthew effect of typical denitrifying glycogen accumulating organisms (DGAOs) Candidatus_Competibacter up to 67.40% mainly contributed to enhanced performance of this new process. This study demonstrated a new approach for simultaneous advanced wastewater treatment, phosphorus recovery, and excess sludge minimization.

Keywords: Aerobic granular sludge; Candidatus_Competibacter; Extracellular polymeric substances; In situ sludge reduction; Side-stream phosphorus recovery.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors
Denitrification
Nitrification
Nitrogen / analysis
Phosphorus
Rivers
Sewage*
Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods
Water Purification*

Substances

Sewage
Phosphorus
Nitrogen