Formation, characterization and mathematical modeling of the aerobic granular sludge

348 Pages·2013·6.53 MB·English

by  Bing-Jie Ni (auth.)

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Bing-Jie Ni
Formation, Characterization
and Mathematical
Modeling of the Aerobic
Granular Sludge
Doctoral Thesis accepted by
School of Earth and Space Sciences
University of Science and Technology of China
123
Author Supervisor
Dr. Bing-JieNi Prof.Han-QingYu
Advanced Water Management Centre Department of Chemistry
The Universityof Queensland Universityof Science
St.Lucia, Brisbane,QLD and Technologyof China
Australia Hefei, Anhui
China
ISSN 2190-5053 ISSN 2190-5061 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-642-31280-9 ISBN 978-3-642-31281-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-31281-6
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Parts of this thesis have been published in the following journal articles
1. Ni,B.J.,Fang,F.,Xie,W.M.,Xu,J.,Yu,H.Q.(2012)Formationofdistinct
soluble microbial products by activated sludge: kinetic analysis and
quantitative determination. Environmental Science and Technology. 46,
1667–1674. (Reproduced with Permission)
2. Ni,B.J.,Xie,W.M.,Chen,Y.P.,Fang,F.,Liu,S.Y.,Ren,T.T.,Sheng,G.P.,
Yu, H.Q., Liu, G., Tian, Y.C. (2011) Heterotrophs grown on the soluble
microbial products (SMP) released by autotrophs are responsible for the
nitrogen loss in nitrifying granular sludge. Biotechnology and Bioengineer-
ing. 108, 2844–2852. (Reproduced with Permission)
3. Ni, B.J., Hu, B.L., Fang, F.,Xie,W.M., Kartal,B., Liu,X.W.,Sheng,G.P.,
Jetten, M.S.M., Zheng, P., Yu, H.Q. (2010) Microbial and physicochemical
characteristics of compact anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox)
granulesinanUASBreactor.AppliedandEnvironmentalMicrobiology.76,
2652–2656. (Reproduced with Permission)
4. Ni, B.J., Zeng, R.J., Fang, F., Xie, W.M., Sheng, G.P., Yu, H.Q. (2010)
Fractionating soluble microbial products in the activated sludge process.
Water Research. 44, 2292–2302. (Reproduced with Permission)
5. Ni, B.J., Yu, H.Q. (2010) Modeling and simulation of the formation and
utilizationofmicrobialproductsinaerobicgranularsludge.AIChEJournal.
56, 546–559. (Reproduced with Permission)
6. Ni, B.J., Sheng, G.P., Li, X.Y., Yu, H.Q. (2010) Quantitative simulation of
the granulation process of activated sludge for wastewater treatment.
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 49, 2864–2873. (Repro-
duced with Permission)
7. Ni,B.J.,Zeng, R.J.,Fang, F.,Xu, J., Sheng,G.P., Yu, H.Q. (2009) Anovel
approach to evaluate the production kinetics of extracellular polymeric
substances(EPS)byactivatedsludgeusingweightednonlinearleast-squares
analysis. Environmental Science and Technology. 43, 3743–3750. (Repro-
duced with Permission)
8. Ni, B.J., Fang, F., Rittmann, B.E., Yu, H.Q. (2009) Modeling microbial
products in activated sludge under feast-famine conditions. Environmental
Science and Technology. 43, 2489–2497. (Reproduced with Permission)
9. Ni,B.J.,Fang,F.,Xie,W.M.,Sun,M.,Yu,H.Q.(2009)Characterizationof
extracellular polymeric substances excreted by mixed microorganisms in
activated sludge with gel-permeating chromatography, excitation emission
matrixfluorescencespectroscopymeasurementandkineticmodeling.Water
Research. 43, 1350–1358. (Reproduced with Permission)
10. Ni, B.J., Xie, W.M., Yu, H.Q., Wang, Y.Z., Wang, G., Dai, X.L. (2009)
Granulationofactivatedsludgeinapilot-scalesequencingbatchreactorfor
the treatment of low-strength municipal wastewater. Water Research. 43,
751–761. (Reproduced with Permission)
11. Ni,B.J.,Chen,Y.P.,Liu,S.Y.,Fang,F.,Xie,W.M.,Yu,H.Q.(2009)Modelinga
granule-based anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (ANAMMOX) process. Bio-
technologyandBioengineering.103,490–499.(ReproducedwithPermission)
12. Ni, B.J., Yu, H.Q. (2009) A new approach to analyze the activated sludge
process: Application to the soybean wastewater treatment in a sequencing
batchreactor.AIChEJournal.55,2737–2745.(ReproducedwithPermission)
13. Ni, B.J., Fang, F., Xie, W.M., Yu, H.Q. (2008) Growth, maintenance and
product formation of autotrophs in activated sludge: Taking the nitrite-
oxidizing bacteria as an example. Water Research. 42, 4261–4270.
(Reproduced with Permission)
14. Ni,B.J.,Yu,H.Q.,Sun,Y.J.(2008)Modelingsimultaneousautotrophicand
heterotrophic growth in aerobic granules. Water Research. 42, 1583–1594.
(Reproduced with Permission)
15. Ni, B.J., Yu, H.Q. (2008) Growth andstorage processesin aerobic granules
grown on soybean wastewater. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 100,
664–672. (Reproduced with Permission)
16. Ni, B.J., Yu, H.Q., Xie, W.M. (2008) Storage and growth of denitrifiers in
aerobic granules: Part II. Model calibration and verification. Biotechnology
and Bioengineering. 99, 324–332. (Reproduced with Permission)
17. Ni, B.J., Yu, H.Q. (2008) Storage and growth of denitrifiers in aerobic
granules: Part I. Model development. Biotechnology and Bioengineering.
99, 314–323. (Reproduced with Permission)
Supervisor’s Foreword
Aerobic granular sludge technology has been recognized as next technological
generationforbiologicalwastewatertreatment.Itwillplayanimportantroleasan
innovative technology alternative to the present activated sludge process in
industrial and municipal wastewater treatment in the near future due to its high
substrate removal efficiency, low excess sludge disposal, and low cost for capital
construction.
In September of 2006, Bing-Jie joined the Laboratory of Environmental
Engineering, USTC, as a PhD candidate, and started his research work on the
formation, characterization, and mathematical modeling of the aerobic granular
sludge through integrating the process engineering tools and advanced molecular
microbiology. Under my supervision, he designed the project plans, constructed
bioreactors, developed mathematical modeling approaches, and carried out
experiments. Also, he has completed data analysis and published lots of high
quality papers in world-class journals in the field of biotechnology and environ-
mental engineering, which were included in this dissertation chapters.
Dr. Ni’s PhD thesis formulated mathematic structure models to describe the
complex aerobic granulation process quantitatively based on experimental obser-
vations and revealed the detailed granule formation mechanisms. The simulta-
neous autotrophic and heterotrophic dynamic growth in aerobic granules was
elucidated in-depth, which shed light on the microbial community competitions
and distributions in aerobic granules. Comprehensive models for microbial prod-
uctswerealsoconstructedandvalidatedfirstinthisthesistoprovideinsightsinto
the dynamics of all the soluble and solid components in aerobic granules. More
importantly, the aerobic granulation of sludge in pilot-scale reactor for treatment
of low-strength municipal wastewater was achieved successfully for the first time
and the key factors responsible for this process were identified, which have great
implications for aerobic granular sludge technology. Furthermore, the thesis
demonstratedacceleratedstart-upoftheAnammoxprocessbyseedingthereactor
withaerobicgranulesfirst,andprovidedsupporttotheoptimizationoftheprocess,
which is making a significant impact on control system design for biological
nitrogen removal.
vii
viii Supervisor’sForeword
I believe that the research results of this thesis will contribute significantly to
the advance of understanding and optimizing the bacterial granulation processes,
the next generation of technology for cost-effective biological wastewater treat-
ment.
February 2012 Han-Qing Yu
Professor of Environmental Engineering
Acknowledgments
There are many people that I want to thank for their professional and personal
support throughout the course of my PhD study. I would like to express my
gratefulappreciationtomysupervisor,Prof.Han-QingYu,forallofhistimeand
efforts in guiding me during my PhD study. Prof. Yu routinely provided me with
insightfulcommentsaboutmyworkandtaughtmealotthroughhislogical,well-
structured, and organized approaches. He always gave me excellent support and
encouragement throughout my Ph.D. study.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with colleagues at the Laboratory
of Environmental Engineering, University of Science & Technology of China.
During my PhD study, they gave me many valuable comments and suggestions
that helped to improve this dissertation.
IwouldliketoexpressmythankstoProf.BruceE.Rittmann,Prof.RaymondJ.
Zeng, Prof. Mike S. M. Jetten, Dr. Bao-Lan Hu, and Dr. Boran Kartal for their
useful advice and discussion throughout my PhD study.
Iwouldalsoliketothankmyfamily.Myparentshaveprovidedmewithmuch
love and support in these years, as they have always done throughout my life.
I would also like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(NSFC, Grant Nos. 50625825 and 50738006) for the partial support of this work.
Bing-Jie Ni
School of Earth and Space Sciences
University of Science and Technology of China
ix
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 Definition of Aerobic Granular Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.2 Formation of Aerobic Granular Sludge . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.3 Microbial Products in Microbial Aggregates . . . . . . . 7
1.2.4 Mathematical Modeling of Aerobic
Granular Sludge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Research Questions and Thesis Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 How Can the Dynamic Aerobic Granulation Process be
Quantitatively Characterized?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3 How Can Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Growth and
Competition in Aerobic Granular Sludge be Determined? . . . . 28
2.4 Can a Thermodynamic Analysis on the Microbial Synthesis
of the Aerobic Granular Process be Achieved?. . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.5 Do Simultaneous Microbial Storage and Growth in Aerobic
Granules Occur?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.6 How do the Aerobic Granules Produce Extracellular
Polymeric Substances? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.7 Can the Formation of Soluble Microbial Products be
Fractionized and Determined? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.8 How Can a Comprehensive Microbial Products Model
(X , EPS, and SMP) for Aerobic Granular Sludge be
STO
Developed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.9 Do the Heterotrophs Utilize the Microbial Products
of Autotrophs in Aerobic Granular Sludge for Growth? . . . . . 31
xi