Aim:
The purpose of this WG is to extend knowledge and awareness of AG processes from microbiological fundamentals to engineering application and control, by bringing engineers, microbiologists and industry together, in order to improve AG processes and performance and promote the adoption of AG technology.
Aerobic granular sludge (AGS), pioneered in the 1990s, represents an advancement in traditional aerobic suspended growth systems, such as activated sludge, by forming granules rather than flocs. This innovation results in a rapidly settling, high-density biomass that offers a smaller footprint and higher levels of nutrient removal due to the different redox zones across the granules and process cycle, all while requiring less energy.
AGS has evolved into an attractive and globally well-established alternative to conventional activated sludge, and other techniques like moving bed bioreactors, and membrane bioreactors. Since the first full-scale implementation in 2005, there have been over 120 applications of Sequential Batch Reactor based AGS at virtually any scales as of 2024, with 14 operational plants in the UK and more under contract. Europe’s largest AGS application is at the Ringsend STP in Dublin, which treats a population of 2.4 million. The development of AGS has also advanced the concept of activated sludge process intensification, which focuses on enhancing sludge settleability by applying selection pressures. Notably, this approach does not necessarily aim to achieve the formation of aerobic granules or a high proportion of granular sludge.
Despite two decades of design and engineering experience, along with a wealth of operating data, there remains potential for advancing scientific insights that could lead to future further improvements. Moreover, carrier-medium-free microbial granules offer a unique perspective for studying biofilms traditionally associated with surface attachment. In the context of the circular economy, there is growing interest in recovering valuable resources from AGS, such as alginate-like exopolysaccharides, tryptophan, phosphorus, and polyhydroxyalkanoates.
Therefore, it is both beneficial and timely to form a working group (WG) to further progress scientific insights and accelerate the environmental benefits this modern technology offers to the water industry and society.
Interested?
Contact the Working Group co-ordinator:
Dr Yongqiang Liu, Lecturer in Environmental Engineering within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. Email: Y.Liu[at]soton.ac.uk with “EBNet Working Group” in the subject in the first instance.
Previous WG Activities
• EBNet Webinar: Aerobic granulation in continuous operating mode and its commercialisation
17th November 2022 12.30-13.30 (GMT). Register HERE. Registration over.
Featuring – – Dr Sudhir Murthy, NEWhub Corp. Dr. Sudhir Murthy is Chief Executive Officer of NEWhub Corp. He is also an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University and Senior-Vice President of the International Water Association (IWA). Chaired by – Dr Yongqiang Liu.
Processes – Special Issue opportunity
The journal Processes has a Special Issue coming out on “Environmental Protection by Aerobic Granular Sludge Process“.
It aims to discuss novel advances in the development and study of process control, optimization, and scaling up for the AGSP. Topics include, but are not limited to:
• Strategies for a fast and stable granulation process
• Strategies to maintain granule stability and identification of key parameters
• Strategies for stable nutrient removal and resource recovery
• Process optimization for the removal of challenging pollutants with the AGSP
• Process scaling up
• Process modelling
Dr Yongqiang Liu, AGSP Working Group co-ordinator, is a Guest Editor. Details of the issue are here and deadline for manuscript submissions was: 15 July 2021 – 31 DECEMBER 2021.
If you are a UK academic and need EBNet financial support for the Article Publishing Charge (APC), please contact Dr Liu.
Initial scoping activity
• EBNet Webinar: Aerobic Granules in Waste Water Treatment
Chaired by – Dr Yongqiang Liu.
Featuring – Assistant Prof Zhiwu (Drew) Wang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University & Professor Jeremy Webb, National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC), University of Southampton.
• EBNet Webinar: Sustainable Biological Removal of N and P
Chaired by – Dr Yongqiang Liu.
Featuring – Juhani Kostiainen, Plantwork Systems Ltd. & Professor Ana Soares, Cranfield University.
EBNet supported networking:
• Conference attendance: IWA Biofilms Conference
• Site visit and sampling – 2nd July 2021
See:
Environmental Protection through Aerobic Granular Sludge Process
By: Yong-Qiang Liu in: Processes 2024, 12(2), 243; Special Issue Environmental Protection by Aerobic Granular Sludge Process
Hydroxyapatite Precipitation and Accumulation in Granules and Its Effects on Activity and Stability of Partial Nitrifying Granules at Moderate and High Temperatures
Yong-Qiang Liu and Simone Cinquepalmi
In Processes 2021, 9(10), 1710
Exploration of mechanisms for calcium phosphate precipitation and accumulation in nitrifying granules by investigating the size effects of granules
Yong-Qiang Liu and Simone Cinquepalmi
In Water Research, p.117753. (Available until 9 Dec 2021)
