Tay, JoohwaHamza, Rania Ahmed Sayed Eid2019-04-082019-04-082019-04-02Hamza, R. A. (2019). Development of Upflow Aerobic Granular Sludge Bioreactor (UAGSBR) for Treatment of High-strength Organic Wastewater (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110144Industrial wastewater, typically referred to as high-strength wastewater, is a major source of ‎water pollution due to its elevated organic content. High-strength organic wastewaters are ‎characterized by chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations greater than 4000 mg/L. ‎The effluents of these industries need to undergo biological treatment to remove the organic ‎matter. However, conventional biological treatment processes fail to stabilize high-strength ‎wastewater to regulatory limits. Aerobic treatment processes are not economically feasible for ‎the treatment of high-strength organic wastewater. Anaerobic processes suffer from low ‎growth rate of the microorganisms, high sensitivity to toxic loadings, fluctuations in ‎environmental conditions, and require post-treatment to bring the water quality within ‎regulations. This work aimed at developing an upflow aerobic granular sludge bioreactor (UAGSBR) to ‎provide a downstream effective treatment process in order to combine the benefit of ‎anaerobic digestion (i.e., biogas production) with the benefit of aerobic treatment (i.e., better ‎removal of organics). Moreover, it is hypothesized that effluent of anaerobic treatment ‎provides a solubilized organic matter suitable for subsequent aerobic treatment because of its ‎reduced organic strength and enhanced amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. The combined ‎system will overcome the limitations of both anaerobic and aerobic systems, such as long ‎treatment duration and low stability due to rapid bacterial growth, respectively. ‎In this project, biogranulation, formed by the self-immobilization of microorganisms, was ‎employed as a novel technology in an upflow semi-pilot-scale bioreactor. These granules are ‎dense microbial communities packed with different bacterial species, which can achieve rapid ‎treatment for high volumes of wastewater in a smaller footprint when compared to ‎conventional biomass. Mechanisms of granule formation and stability considering influential ‎factors such as system start-up, organic loading rate, food-to-microorganisms ratio, and ‎nutrients addition were examined. Treatment efficiency, assessed in terms of organics and ‎nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) removal, was above 90%. The UAGSBR provides a ‎compact system for high-strength organics wastewater treatment (at 20-30% spatial footprint ‎of a conventional plant). ‎ ‎ ‎University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.EngineeringEngineering--CivilEngineering--Environmentaldoctoral thesis10.11575/PRISM/36342