Recently, aerobic granular sludge technology has been scaled-up and implemented for industrial and
municipal wastewater treatment under the trade name Nereda®. With full-scale references for industrial
treatment application since 2006 and domestic sewage since 2009 only limited operating data have been
presented in scientific literature so far. In this study performance, granulation and design considerations
of an aerobic granular sludge plant on domestic wastewater at the WWTP Garmerwolde, the Netherlands
were analysed. After a start-up period of approximately 5 months, a robust and stable granule bed
(>8gL1
) was formed and could be maintained thereafter, with a sludge volume index after 5 min
settling of 45 mL g1
. The granular sludge consisted for more than 80% of granules larger than 0.2 mm
and more than 60% larger than 1 mm. Effluent requirements (7 mg N L1 and 1 mg P L1
) were easily met
during summer and winter. Maximum volumetric conversion rates for nitrogen and phosphorus were
respectively 0.17 and 0.24 kg (m3 d)1
. The energy usage was 13.9 kWh (PE150$year)1 which is 58e63 %
lower than the average conventional activated sludge treatment plant in the Netherlands. Finally, this
study demonstrated that aerobic granular sludge technology can effectively be implemented for the
treatment of domestic wastewater.