Aerobic granular biomass technology: advancements in design, applications and further developments

Abstract

Aerobic granular sludge is seen as the future standard for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment. Through a Dutch research and development program, a full-scale aerobic granular biomass technology has been developed – the Nereda® technology – which has been implemented to treat municipal and industrial wastewater. The Nereda® system is considered to be the first aerobic granular sludge technology applied at full-scale and more than 40 municipal and industrial plants are now in operation or under construction worldwide. Further plants are in the planning and design phase, including plants with capacities exceeding 1 million PE. Data from operational plants confirm the system's advantages with regard to treatment performance, energy-efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In addition, a new possibility for extracting alginate-like exopolysaccharides (ALE) from aerobic granular sludge has emerged which could provide sustainable reuse opportunities. The case is therefore made for a shift away from the ‘activated sludge approach’ towards an ‘aerobic granular approach’, which would assist in addressing the challenges facing the wastewater treatment industry in Asia and beyond.

Removal of bacterial and viral indicator organisms in full-scale aerobic granular sludge and conventional activated sludge systems

“…The better understanding on the interaction between substrate and bacteria led the development of the AGS system in which denser granular biomass is formed and simultaneously remove organic matter and nutrients in only one biological tank (de Kreuk et al., 2005). This improvement has resulted in energy savings (20–50%) while compared to CAS systems (Pronk et al., 2017) and other technologies such as membrane bioreactors (Purnell et al., 2016). Moreover, less area is required compared to CAS systems or other technologies such as trickling filters and constructed wetlands (Stefanakis et al., 2019).…”

“…Vroomshoop is operated as a carrousel and does not have ferric iron dosing. Moreover, the CAS system at Vroomshoop WWTP receives the excess/waste sludge from the AGS system (Pronk et al., 2017), which may result in an additional accumulation of FIOs in the biological tank. In Garmerwolde WWTP, the excess sludge is directly discharged to the sludge digestion line.…”

Organic substrate diffusibility governs microbial community composition, nutrient removal performance and kinetics of granulation of aerobic granular sludge

“…Advantages of AGS include enhanced settling properties, a high suspended solid concentration and the co-existence of different redox conditions across the granules, which result in significant energy, footprint and chemical savings (Khan et al., 2015). Worldwide, more than 40 full-scale plants are now in operation, treating a wide range of municipal and industrial wastewaters (Pronk et al., 2017). However, the performance and/or granulation process of AGS systems are often hampered by the wastewater composition (Guimarães et al., 2018; de Kreuk and VAN Loosdrecht, 2006; Guimarães et al., 2017).…”

Comprehensive Source Control for Potable Reuse

“…The process is simple to operate as there are no moving parts. The principal advantages are excellent removals of TSS, BOD, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other constituents; smaller footprint; secondary clarifiers not required; and energy savings due to reduced aeration requirements (de Kreuk and Loosdrecht, 2006;Figdore et al, 2017Figdore et al, , 2018Pronk et al, 2017).…”