Rapid cultivation of aerobic granular sludge in a pilot scale sequencing batch reactor

Aerobic granular sludge which had good performance to pollutants removal was successfully cultivated within 18 days in a pilot scale sequencing batch reactor, about 25% mature aerobic granular sludge was inoculated when the setting time of activated sludge was reduced to 10 min. Anaerobic biological selector was implemented to inhibit filamentous bacteria overgrowth, where the maximum COD could reach to 1703.74 mg/L. The cultivated aerobic granular sludge was irregular and pale yellow, average particle size, SVI, SV₃₀/SV₅, PN/PS, EPS and water content were 1.58 mm, 67.64 mL/g, 0.91, 2.17, 268.90 mg EPS/g MLVSS and 98.16% on the 18th day. Mechanism of rapid granulation mainly included crystal nucleus hypothesis and selection pressure hypothesis. The inoculated aerobic granules could maintain stable under short setting time environment, making it directly as the crystal nucleus and the carriers for new particles without obvious disintegration, which eventually shortened the granulation time greatly.