ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on determining the relation between reactor operational conditions, and physical and biological mechanisms on removing two faecal surrogates, E. coli and MS2 bacteriophages. In general, aerobic granular sludge (AGS) wastewater treatment systems report high removal efficiencies of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus Two laboratory-scale reactors were operated long-term as sequencing batch reactors. Both systems developed a steady-state situation with mature granules when fed with only synthetic wastewater. The effects of the settling on the removal of the target microorganisms were independently evaluated in an additional AGS reactor, operated like the long term studied reactors but without being fed with any surrogate. The granules, cultivated only with synthetic wastewater, were spiked with either E. coli bacteria or MS2 bacteriophages and thoroughly mixed by aeration for 5 min to reach an equilibrium between supernatant and granules.
