Seawater-Based Wastewater Accelerates Development of Aerobic Granular Sludge: a Laboratory Proof-Of-Concept
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Water Research 115 (2017) 210e219 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Water Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/watres Seawater-based wastewater accelerates development of aerobic granular sludge: A laboratory proof-of-concept * Xiling Li a, Jinghai Luo a, Gang Guo a, Hamish R. Mackey b, Tianwei Hao a, c, f, , Guanghao Chen a, d, e, f a Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China b College of Science and Engineering, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Education City, Doha, Qatar c Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China d Water Technology Center, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China e Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China f Wastewater Treatment Laboratory, FYT Graduate School, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Nansha, Guangzhou, China article info abstract Article history: This study aimed to develop an aerobic granular sludge process for the efficient treatment of highly Received 13 December 2016 saline wastewater and understand the granulation process in a seawater-based multi-ion matrix. Five Received in revised form identical sequencing batch airlift reactors (SBARs) are used to treat synthetic saline sewage with different 22 February 2017 proportions of real seawater (0%e100%). The results confirm that aerobic granular sludge can be suc- Accepted 1 March 2017 cessfully developed with various proportions of seawater up to 100% and show that seawater not only Available online 2 March 2017 significantly accelerates granulation but also generates stronger granular structures than does fresh- water. The increased presence of gel-forming alginate-like exopolysaccharides in the granules explains Keywords: Seawater mixed sewage why a greater proportion of seawater leads to higher density and improves the cohesive strength of the 2þ 2þ Multi-ion impact granules. SEM-EDX analysis further revealed substantial presence of both Ca and Mg phosphate in Rapid granulation the granule core as well as in the outer layers providing extra bridging forces in addition to alginate-like Aerobic granular sludge exopolysaccharides for accelerating the granule formation and maintaining the structure. It is hoped that this work could explore another approach for saline sewage treatment and bring some clues for the mystery of granulation mechanism. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction (30 g/L), nitrogen (60 mg/L) and phosphorus (5 mg/L) (Díaz et al., 2012). A second contributor is seawater intrusion into coastal An estimated 50 percent of the world's population lives within freshwater aquifers, caused by both the over extraction of 100 km of a coastline (World Bank, 2009), and this figure is ex- groundwater resources and rising sea levels. For example, Moptma- pected to grow rapidly in the next half century due to migration, Miner (1994) estimates that 58% of Spain's coastal hydrogeological given the geographical and economic advantages of coastal areas units have been impacted by seawater intrusion due to over compared to inland regions. Associated with this growth is an in- extraction, while Weert et al. (2009) estimate that 204 million crease in the production of saline wastewater. One such cause is the people were impacted globally by saline water intrusion into growth of the aquaculture industry, which has increased by a factor groundwater in 2000. Meanwhile, for coastal areas with constant of five between 1990 and 2013 (FAO, 2014). While providing both head boundaries, seawater could intrude up to several kilometers food and income to coastal areas (Naylor and Burke, 2005), it also inland due to rising sea levels (Werner and Simmons, 2009). As generates saline wastewater typically composed of dissolved solids groundwater accounts for a third of all freshwater consumption and is the sole water source for many cities, brackish groundwater wells must be frequently desalinized (Bear et al., 1999). Wastewater can become salinized through the disposal of desalination brine in * Corresponding author. Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University sewers or the infiltration of saline groundwater into sewer of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. networks. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Hao). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.03.002 0043-1354/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. X. Li et al. / Water Research 115 (2017) 210e219 211 Conventional biofilm processes are typically used for the treat- reactors was recorded every two days. The physical and chemical ment of wastewater from aquaculture and other sources (Eding properties of the sludge were also measured every week. et al., 2006) but are constrained in urban environments by their large footprint (Dickenson, 1997), unstable performance (Vallet 2.2. Synthetic saline sewage et al., 2009), and reactor blockages due to precipitation on biomass support materials (Sanchez et al., 2012). This shortcoming Synthetic saline wastewater was prepared by diluting the syn- in turn limits the quality of treatment, causing ammonium, nitrite thetic stock solution (Table A.1 in Supplementary Information (SI)) and suspended solids to accumulate (Ebeling and Timmons, 2012). with a mixture of seawater and freshwater. Seawater was collected An alternative technology to allow the compact, stable and efficient from the Hong Kong seawater-toilet flushing network, which un- biological treatment of seawater-laden wastewater is therefore dergoes straining and electrochlorination. Salinity at the point of necessary. collection was 3.2% with no residual free chlorine. Different pro- Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is a promising alternative tech- portions of seawater were mixed with the synthetic stock waste- nology due to its compact layered structure, which allows increased water, as shown in Table A.2 of the SI, to achieve final seawater biomass retention and concentration, as well as its greater resis- proportions of 0% (R1), 20% (R2), 50% (R3), 80% (R4) and 100% (R5) tance to adverse conditions compared with conventional activated to the nearest percentage point respectively. The influent was sludge (Tay et al., 2005). Applications of AGS in the treatment of comprised of acetate, glucose and yeast with a chemical oxygen dairy (Schwarzenbeck et al., 2004), abattoir (Cassidy and Belia, demand (COD) concentration of 400 mg/L. Ammonium chloride 2005) and livestock wastewater (Othman et al., 2013) have been was also added to increase the influent ammonium concentration studied intensively. However, Jeison et al. (2008) found one po- to 100 mg-N/L. The ratio of bicarbonate (NaHCO3) to ammonium- tential obstacle in that the particle size and physical strength of nitrogen (N) in the influent was fixed at 4 to maintain a pH of 7.2. granules decreased significantly when salinity was increased from À 1to10gCl/L. Pronk et al. (2014) made similar findings and 2.3. Batch experiment À observed granule disintegration after increasing salinity to 20 g Cl / L, similar to that of seawater-based aquaculture wastewaters. The batch experiment was conducted in two smaller 500 ml Conversely, Li and Wang (2008) report that increasing salinity up to reactors to investigate the dynamics of rapid granulation using À 50 g Cl /L results in much larger, more compact and active gran- different proportions of seawater. Each batch reactor was inocu- ules. Corsino et al. (2016) also achieved robust results using aerobic lated with 2 g/L of activated sludge taken from the same local granular sludge to treat fish processing wastewater at salinity levels sewage treatment plant. The batch reactors followed the same À up to 50 g Cl /L. The wide variations between findings from pre- operation schedule as the SBARs and were run for 30 days. Both vious studies leads us to reconsider the effect of salinity on aerobic batch reactors were fed with the same synthetic wastewater as granular sludge processes. Moreover, almost all studies to date have described in Section 2.2 but mixed with 0 (RA) and 100% (RB) focused on simple saline matrices, usually containing only salt seawater respectively. Samples were collected daily to measure the (NaCl) (Li and Wang, 2008; Bassin et al., 2011; Taheri et al., 2012). diameter of the sludge and the mass concentration of metal ions in Seawater is significantly more complex, containing seven ions at the sludge. The physical and chemical properties of the sludge were concentrations greater than 100 mg/L. The impact of multi-ion measured daily. matrices on the granulation process requires further investiga- þ tion, especially that of abundant metal divalent cations (e.g. Ca2 , 2.4. Analytical methods þ Mg2 ) in seawater. Multi-ion matrices in seawater can have a sig- nificant impact on extracellular polymer structure, which is critical COD was calculated based on the Standard Methods (APHA, to the granulation process (Lin et al., 2013b). 2005). Total nitrogen (TN) was measured with a total nitrogen This study therefore explores the effects of high salinity on the measurement module equipped on a total organic carbon analyzer aggregation of AGS for the treatment of seawater-based wastewa- (TOC-VCPH, Shimadzu). A flow injection analyzer (QuikChem 8500, ters. Five identical sequencing batch airlift reactors (SBARs)