Achieving stably enhanced biological phosphorus removal from aerobic granular sludge system via phosphorus rich liquid extraction during anaerobic period

In order to sustainably manage wastewater treatment plants and the environment, enhanced biological phosphorus (P) removal (EBPR) was proposed to achieve P recovery through extracting P-rich liquid (i.e., Phostrip) from the bottom of aerobic granular sludge (AGS)-based sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) under no mixing during the anaerobic phase. Results showed both tested bacterial AGS (BAGS) and algal-bacterial AGS (A-BAGS) systems stably produced low effluent P (<0.05 mg-P/L) with little impact on their organics and NH₄⁺-N removals (>99%). The collected P-rich liquids (55–83 mg-P/L) from both systems showed great potential for P recovery of about 83.85 ± 0.57 % (BAGS) or 83.99 ± 0.77% (A-BAGS), which were contributed by the influent P (>95%) and P reserves in granules based on P balance analysis. This study suggests that the AGS-based SBRs coupling the Phostrip holds great potentials for P recovery profit and further reduction in energy consumption.