Powdered Ceramsite and Powdered Limestone Use in Aerobic Granular Sludge Technology

Abstract

The effects of two powdered mineral materials (powdered ceramsite and powdered limestone) on aerobic granulation of sludge were evaluated. The experiment was conducted on a laboratory scale bioreactors treating wastewater for 89 days. Three granular sequencing batch reactors (GSBRs) were operated at the lowest optimal organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.55 g COD/(L∙d). In the control reactor (R1), the mean diameter (d) of the biomass ranged from 124.0 to 210.0 µm, and complete granulation was not achieved. However, complete granulation did occur in reactors to which either ceramsite (251.9 µm < d < 783.1 µm) or limestone (246.0 µm < d < 518.9 µm) was added. Both powdered materials served as a ballast for the sludge flocs making up the seed sludge. Ceramsite particles also acted as microcarriers of granule-forming biomass. The granules in the reactors with added powdered materials had nonfibrous and smoother surfaces. The reactor with ceramsite exhibited the highest average efficiencies for COD, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus removal (85.4 ± 5.4%, 56.6 ± 10.2%, and 56.8 ± 9.9%, respectively). By contrast, the average nitrification efficiency was 95.1 ± 12.8%.

Sidestream Treatment of Anaerobically Digested Sludge Centrate Using Activated Sludge and Aerobic Granular Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactors

“…The ratio of MLVSS/MLSS fluctuated in response to the sludge concentration, but an average vale of 0.72 ± 0.09 was determined for AGS-SBR-1. According to (Czarnota et al, 2020), MLVSS/MLSS ratio signifies sludge activity or organic content, and it is typically in the range 0.7-0.8 (Tchobanoglous et al, 2014). In Figure 21, reactor re-seed on day 34 in response to a substantial decrease in sludge concentration resulted in a lower than usual Sludge settleability for AGS-SBR-2 in terms of SVI30 averaged 111 ± 4 mL/g for days 4-14 and 59 ± 11 mL/g for the remainder of the reactor operation.…”

New Materials and Technologies for Wastewater Treatment

“…Materials in water treatment are mainly used as adsorbents for a wide variety of targets, but not only for this use. For example, Czarnota et al assessed the potential of powdered ceramsite and limestone to improve the settling of aerobic granular sludges, and their impact on the removal of classical wastewater parameters [ 1 ]. By monitoring the granule formation and shape for a total time of three months, the authors exhibited that despite the fact that the granulation process was not complete, both powdered ceramsite and limestone acted as a ballast for the formation of sludge flocs.…”

“…This Special Issue (SI) contains the successful submissions [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] of Materials on the subject area of “New Materials and Technologies for Wastewater Treatment”. The development of new materials that are able to enhance the efficiency of industrial wastewater treatment processes, as well as the modulation of these materials’ properties to improve the recovery of pollutants, has experienced steady progress.…”

Co-Utilization of Sewage Sludge and Rice Husk in Ceramsite Preparation with Selective Adsorption Capacity to Pb

“…In recent years, some studies have attempted to use SS as raw materials in preparing ceramsite for building materials or filter materials [11,12]. Compared with the utilization of ceramsite in building materials, the higher added value of filter materials might be a more promising direction [13,14].…”