The Operation Characteristics of Advanced Sewage Treatment Process Using Aerobic Granular Sludge in Pilot Plant

In this study, a pilot plant with a capacity of 225 m 3 /d was installed and operated at the S sewage treatment plant in Gyeonggi-do to assess the operational characteristics of the Aerobic Granualr Sludge -Sequencing Batch Reactor (AGS-SBR) Process.During the pilot plant operation, F/M ratio was in the range of 0.02 to 0.24 (CODMn Kg/MLVSS Kg) and the average removal efficiency of BOD5, CODMn, SS, T-N and T-P was 98.2%, 89.5%, 93.6%, 64.6%, and 93.5%, respectively.In winter, nitrogen was reliably removed at influent sewage temperatures below 11°C, but treatment efficiency tended to decrease at MLVSS concentrations below 2,000 mg/L and below C/N ratio 2. As operating period elapsed, it was observed that AGS was getting bigger and SVI was improved.As a result of microbial community analysis, it was confirmed that nitrification and denitrification microorganisms exist as well as heterotrophic microorganisms.The AGS-SBR operation results showed that the annual sludge disposal cost was reduced by 54.9% and the power consumption was reduced by 34.7% compared to the domestic SBR type sewage treatment plant with a processing capacity of 1,000 m 3 /day or less.