Aerobic granular sludge reactor treating anaerobically pretreated brewery wastewater at different loading rates

Abstract

Small and medium breweries discharging to municipal sewers without treatment generate significant loads with typical concentrations reported by Valta et al. (2014) as 2-6 g COD L-1, 25-80 mg TN L-1, 10-50 mg TP L-1, with pH between 4.5 and 12. Treatment of the high-strength wastewater requires specialized low footprint processes, such as aerobic granular sludge (AGS), capable of high-rate degradation, as well as simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorous removal (Wang et al., 2007). The objective of this study was to evaluate the start-up period of AGS receiving brewery wastewater after initial anaerobic pretreatment.