Developing Aerobic Granular Sludge With Sesame Like Biodegradable Support

Abstract

Aerobic granular sludge (granules) is an innovative wastewater treatment, where dense biomass is in granular form. The problem of applying this technology at full scale is the granulation process time, which takes several months. In this paper, in an attempt to quicken this process, a biofilm was tested using several candidates as biodegradable support (BDS) for granulation. In this study, it was found that not only the granulation process was accelerated using sesame seeds as BDS (10, 15 and 21 days, compared to 2 months proposed by other studies), but also a new phenomenon was observed where new granules were generated from mature granules, enhancing the granulation process. This paper offers an enhanced option for granulation process.