Effect of wastewater COD/N ratio on aerobic nitrifying sludge granulation and microbial population s

The effect of COD/N ratio on the granulation process and microbial population succession was investigated.Four identical sequencing batch reactors,R1,R2,R3 and R4,were operated with various initial COD/N ratios ranging from 0/200 to 800/200 (m/n).Ethanol was fed as the source of COD.Aerobic granules were successfully cultivated in R2 and R3,operating with the COD/N ratio of 200/200 and 400/200,respectively.Scanning electron microscope observations indicated that short rod-shaped and spherical bacteria were dominant in R2,while granules produced in R3 were surrounded with a large amount of filamentous bacteria.The average specific nitritation rate in R2 and R3 were 0.019 and 0.008 mg N/(mg MLVSS.hr),respectively.Fluorescence in situ hybridization results demonstrated that nitrifying bacteria population was enriched remarkably in R2.It indicated that nitrification ability and nitrifying bacteria population were enriched remarkably at low COD/N ratio.However,no granules were formed in R1and R4 which might attribute to either limited or excessive extracellular polymeric substances production.This study contributed to a better understanding of the role of COD/N ratio in nitrifying sludge granulation.