Abstract
The research project is situated in the field of environmental biotechnology, more specifically the biological treatment of industrial wastewater. The conventional activated sludge process, CAS, is typically operated at long sludge retention times (= low-rate), and often yields a good quality effluent for discharge. CAS treatment however comes with a considerable (environmental) cost with limited resource recovery.
In view of the much needed transition of conventional wastewater treatment systems to advanced water resource recovery facilities, this project develops the innovative concept of High-Rate Granular Sludge or HiGS. HiGS aims at various complementary resource recovery routes: 1) energy recovery via anaerobic digestion of the sludge operated at low sludge retention times (a few days), 2) nutrient recovery via the enhanced biological phosphorus removal process which is key to granulation, and 3) recovery of valuable gel-forming biopolymers that define the structure of the aerobic granules.
The project specifically investigates the impact of key operational factors, such as the sludge retention time and the wastewater composition, on the resulting microbial community composition and the quantitative resource recovery potential of HiGS. In addition, the project determines the composition and properties of gel-forming biopolymers extracted from high rate granular sludge systems in view of future applications.
Researcher(s)
Research team(s)
Project type(s)