With inoculum sludge from a conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment plant, three sequencing
batch reactors (SBRs) fed with synthetic wastewater were operated at different high temperatures
(30, 40 and 50 ± 1 C) to study the formation of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) for simultaneous organics
and nutrients removal with a complete cycle time of 3 h. The AGS were successfully cultivated with influent
loading rate of 1.6 COD g (L d)1
. The COD/N ratio of the influent wastewater was 8. The results
revealed that granules developed at 50 C have the highest average diameter, (3.36 mm) with 98.17%,
94.45% and 72.46% removal efficiency observed in the system for COD, ammonia and phosphate, respectively.
This study also demonstrated the capabilities of AGS formation at high temperatures which is suitable
to be applied for hot climate conditions.