Dynamics of polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulation in aerobic granules during the growth-disintegration cycle

The polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) accumulation dynamics in aerobic granules that undergo the growth-disintegration cycle were investigated. Four sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were inoculated with aerobic granules at different stages of development (different sizes). Different sizes of aerobic granules showed varying PHA contents. Thus, further study was conducted to investigate the diffusion of substrate and oxygen on PHA accumulation using various organic loading rates (OLR) and aeration rates (AR). An increase in OLR from 0.91 to 3.64 kg COD/m3 day increased the PHA content from 0.66 to 0.87 g PHA/g CDW. Meanwhile, an AR increase from 1 to 4 L/min only accelerated the maximum PHA accumulation without affecting the PHA content. However, the PHA composition only changes with AR, while the hydroxyvalerate (HV) content increased at a higher AR.