Effect of operation modes on granulation process of activated sludge in treatment of hypersaline wastewater
Aerobic granular sludge(AGS)technology has shown great application potentials in the treatment of hypersaline organic wastewater.The effect of operation modes on granulation process under hypersaline stress was still unknown.In this study,three sequencing batch reactors(SBRs)were used to investigate the granulation process of aerobic activated sludge and the efficiency of hypersaline wastewater treatment under different operation modes,including aerobic mode(R1)and anaerobic/aerobic mode(R2:anaerobic plug-flow feeding for 30 min,R3:anaerobic plug-flow feeding for 120 min).The results showed that the granulation time of Rl,R2,and R3 was similar(granulation completion on Day 13,13,and 10),whereas the particles cultivated in R3 had dense structure and high PN/PS content.Under hypersaline conditions,all three SBRs could achieve high TOC removal efficiencies(>97%),NH4+-N removal efficiencies of Rl and R2 were both greater than 96%,while R3 was fluctuated between 50%~70%,which might be due to the inhibition of nitrification reaction by sulfate-reducing bacteria(Desulfovibrio and Fusibacter)with the generation of S2-during the long anaerobic plug-flow feeding period.This study can provide a useful reference for aerobic granulation in hypersaline wastewater.