Simulation of Aerobic Granular Sludge Process Efficiency

Abstract

Using aerobic granular sludge for wastewater treatment has multiple advantages compared to conventional activated sludge systems, most important being the ability of simultaneous removal of the pollutants responsible for eutrophication: organic load, compounds of nitrogen (NH4+; NO3-) and phosphorus (PO43-). The advantages are currently exploited for developing the next generation of wastewater treatment systems while the identified limitations are approached by experimental and theoretical researches worldwide. The aim of the study consists in evaluating the possibility of predicting the system’s response to different changes in the influent wastewater loadings. The paper presents simulations results backed up by experimental data for pollutants removal efficiencies evaluation for a sequential batch reactor (SBR) with aerobic granular sludge. The mathematical model is based on the activated sludge model no. 3, which was updated by considering the simultaneous biological nitrification (NH4+àNO3-) and denitrification (NO3-àN2á) processes, thus complying with the biochemical reactions occurring in aerobic granular sludge sequential batch reactors. The model developed was validated by the experimental results obtained on a laboratory scale SBR monitored for over a month.