Author Description

This dissertation, "Formation and Stability of Aerobic Granular Sludge in Biological Wastewater Treatment" by Yun, Li,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Aerobic sludge granulation is a new technology that has been developed for biological wastewater treatment. Compared with conventional activated sludge, aerobic granules allow better sludge-water separation and a higher biomass concentration. However, the mechanism of the transformation from sludge flocs to granular sludge under the aerobic condition is still unclear. Deterioration of aerobic granules in long-term operation is also a concern for its scale-up application. The present study was conducted to investigate the crucial factors for aerobic granulation and its underlying mechanism. In addition, the stability of aerobic granules under unfavorable conditions and the recovery of deteriorated granules in bioreactors were also studied. For formation of aerobic granules, gelation-facilitated biofilm growth was proposed as a new mechanism for the granulation process. Simulation of granule formation was performed in a well-controlled chemical system to provide an experimental proof for the proposed aerobic granulation theory. Granule formation was achieved in a particle suspension with latex microspheres for bacterial cells and alginate and peptone for extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), together with the cation addition and floc discharge. In the mixture with the dosing of alginate and a small amount of peptone, artificial gels and granules could be well formed, and the artificial granules share the similar micro-structure as the