Performance of Anammox granular sludge bed reactor started up with nitrifying granular sludge

The anaerobic ammonia oxidation(Anammox) granular sludge bed reactor was started up successfully with nitrifying granular sludge. During the operation, the nitrifying granular sludge was gradually converted into Anammox granular sludge with good settling property and high conversion activity. The Anammox reactor worked well with the shortest HRT of 2 43 h. Under the condition that HRT w as 6 39 h and influent concentration of ammonia and nitrite was 10 mmol/L, the removal of ammonia and nitrite was 97 17% and 100 00%, respectively. Corresponding volumetric total nitrogen loading rate and volumetric total nitrogen conversion rate were 100 83 mmol/(L·d) and 98 95 mmol/(L·d). The performance of Anammox reactor was efficient and stable.

Performance and microbial diversity of an expanded granular sludge bed reactor for high sulfate and nitrate waste brine treatment

The disposal of waste brines has become a major challenge that hinders the wide application of ion- exchange resins in the water industry in recent decades. In this study, high sulfate removal efficiency （80%-90%） was achieved at the influent sulfate concentration of 3600 mg/L and 3% NaC1 after 145 days in an expanded granular sludge bed （EGSB） reactor. Furthermore, the feasibility of treating synthetic waste brine containing high levels of sulfate and nitrate was investigated in a single EGSB reactor during an operation period of 261 days. The highest nitrate and sulfate loading rate reached 6.38 and 5.78 kg/（m3-day） at SO42--S/NO3-N mass ratio of 4/3, and the corresponding removal efficiency was 99.97% and 82.26% at 3% NaC1, respectively. Meanwhile, 454-pyrosequencing technology was used to analyze the bacterial diversity of the sludge on the 240th day for stable operation of phase X. Results showed that a total of 9194 sequences were obtained, which could be affiliated to 14 phyla, including Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Chlorobi, Bacteroidetes, Synergistetes and so on. Proteobacteria （77.66%） was the dominant microbial population, followed by Firmicutes （12.23%） and Chlorobi （2.71%）.

Development of a novel modified EGSB reactor for municipal sewage treatment at ambient temperatures

A novel modified expanded granular sludge bed(EGSBm) reactor was developed for anaerobic treatment of municipal sewage with mixed liquid recirculation instead of effluent recirculation commonly adopted by a conventional EGSB(EGSBc) reactor.Performances of these two reactors were compared in treating municipal sewage at ambient temperatures ranging from 8 to 26 ℃.At an upflow liquid velocity(Vup) of 10.3 m/h,the mean concentrations of filtrated COD(CODfilt) and COD of the EGSBm effluent were determined to be 59.4 and 95.9 mg/L,respectively,which were significantly lower than those of the EGSBc effluent operated under identical experimental conditions.When the organic loading rate was suddenly increased from 1.2 to 7.2 kg COD/(m3·d),the EGSBm regained the removal efficiency of previous operation phase in 10 d.Hydrodynamic characteristics of the reactors were compared using the residence time distribution(RTD) model.It was found that the treatment efficiency of EGSBm kept increasing as the Vup increased.The polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis(PCR-DGGE) technique was used to analyze the microbial diversity in EGSBm.Fingerprinting pattern indicated that some species in the inoculating sludge were still reserved in the granular sludge of EGSBm,moreover,several new species occurred.

Quick start-up of EGSB reactor treating fresh leachate of municipal solid waste

An expanded granular sludge bed （EGSB） reactor inoculated with anaerobic granular sludge was started up with its COD removal performance, self-balancing of pH, biogas production rate and characteristics of the granular sludge during the start-up period being investigated. The results indicated that the EGSB reactor can be started up successfully in 27 d by increasing the organic loading rate rapidly. The removal efficiency of COD was maintained above 93% with influent COD concentration of 25 000 mg/L and OLR of 37.94 kgCOD/（m 3 ·d）. The EGSB reactor with good pH self-balancing could be fed with fresh leachate of low pH value （4 5）. The biogas production rate was closely related with OLR and COD reduction. Every gram of COD fed （consumed） to the reactor produced 0.34 L STP （0.36 L STP ） biogas with 0.21 L STP （0.23 L STP ） methane. Thus, 65% 70% of the produced biogas was methane. Sixty one percentage of COD fed to the reactor was converted to methane, another 33% was converted to biomass by metabolism, and the other 6% was left in the liquid phase. The specific methanogenic activity （SMA） of the granular sludge had increased by 92% after 27 d dynamic incubation. The granular sludge in the reactor had good settlement performance with majority diameter of 1 2 mm.

Optimizing Conditions of Enhancing Granule Sludge Concentration and Performance

An expanded granular sludge bed （EGSB） reactor was adopted to study the influence factors and rule of enhancing granular sludge concentration and performance. The experiment was performed at 33 ℃, pH 6.0-8.0 with continuous flow by adding proper quantity of nutritional trace elements. The results show that SLR was the key of steady operation of EGSB reactor. The increment of the granular sludge was influenced by volume loading rate （VLR）, liquid up-flow velocity and sludge loading rate （SLR）. Concentration of granular sludge increased rapidly when liquid up-flow velocity was over 0.94 m · h^-1 with SLR being at 1.0-2.0 d ^-1. With the propriety parameters： liquid up-flow velocity 2.52 m · h^-1, SLR 1.0-2.2 d^-1 and VLR 8.2-13.1 kg · m ^3 · d^-1, 23 days＇ continuous operation resulted in an increment by over 80% of granular sludge concentration in the EGSB reactor, plus good granular sludge property.

Concept and application of anaerobic suspended granular sludge bed （SGSB） reactor for wastewater treatment

Bed expansion serves an important function in the design and operation of an upflow anaerobic reactor. An analysis of the flow pattern of expanded granular sludge bed （EGSB） reactors shows that most EGSB reactors do not behave as expanded bed reactors, as is widely perceived. Rather, these reactors behave as fluidized bed reactors based on the classic chemical reactor theory. In this paper, four bed expansion modes, divided as static bed, expanded bed, suspended bed, and fluidized bed, for bioreactors are proposed. A high-rate anaerobic suspended granular sludge bed （SGSB） reactor was then developed. The SGSB reactor is an upflow anaerobic reactor, and its expansion degree can be easily controlled within a range to maintain the suspended status of the sludge bed by controlling upfiow velocity. The results of the full-scale reactor confirmed that the use of SGSB reactors is advantageous. The full-scale SGSB reactor runs stably and achieves high COD removal efficiency （about 90%） at high loading rates （average 40 kg-COD·m^-3·d^-1, maximum to 52 kg·COD·m^-3 ·d^-1） based on the SGSB theory, and its expansion degree is between 22% and 37%.