The stability of aerobic granular sludge treating municipal sludge deep dewatering filtrate in a bench scale sequencing batch reactor

• Wastewater quality of municipal sludge deep dewatering filtrate was analyzed.
• Aerobic granule treating real wastewater was successfully domesticated after 84 days.
• Effective denitrification was achieved through adding external carbon sources.

Inoculated with mature aerobic granular sludge in a sequencing batch reactor, gradually increasing the proportion of municipal sludge deep dewatering filtrate in influent, aerobic granular sludge was domesticated after 84 days and maintained its structure during the operation. The domesticated AGS was yellowish-brown, dense and irregular spherical shape, average size was 1.49 mm, water content and specific density were 98.13% and 1.0114, the SVI and settling velocity were 40 ml/g and 46.5 m/h. After 38 days, NO3−-N accumulated obviously in the reactor as lack of carbon sources. When adding 1–3 g solid CH3COONa at 4.5 and 5.5 h of each cycle from the 57th day, the removal rate of TN rose to above 90% after 20 days, where effective COD removal and denitrification were realized in a single bioreactor. Finally, the removal rates of COD, TP, TN and NH4+-N were higher than 95%, 88%, 96% and 99%.

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