Amiel Middlemann, Nisarg Gohil, and Andrea Whalen
Abstract:
The AguaClara Wastewater team returned in Fall 2015 with two teams investigating both anaerobic and aerobic wastewater treatment reactors. The GSBR (Granular Sequencing Batch Reactor) team worked to expand knowledge about this potentially innovative and sustainable wastewater treatment technology. The goal of the Fall 2015 semester was to investigate potential improvements to reactor operation that would improve nitrogen removal. Furthermore, the team was interested in the stability of granular sludge under lower aeration requirements. One continuously operating reactor was inherited by the GSBR team at the start of the semester, which had been inoculated during the summer 2015 by visiting student researchers from Brazil. Lastly, the team considered the feasibility of this technology in implementation.
Results from monitoring ammonium and nitrate concentrations through several cycles of operation indicated that improvements to nitrogen removal did not result from operational changes that were installed. Conclusions from the semester included a decreased nitrification efficiency under lower aeration supply. However, granule stability and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal remained under lower airflow conditions.
