The effect of salinity over granular biomass treating a mixture of aromatic compounds (phenol, o-cresol
and p-nitrophenol) was evaluated in a continuous airlift reactor. To mimic an industrial wastewater,
increasing concentrations (from 2.0 to 29.0 g salts L1
) of a mixture of salts (MgSO4, NaCl, KCl, CaCl2
and NaHCO3) were introduced in the influent. The gradual salinity increase led to a good acclimation
of the biomass obtaining complete biodegradation of the aromatic compounds and no accumulation of
metabolic intermediates. However, a deterioration of the morphology of aerobic granules with a
complete loss of granulation after 125 days was produced at 29.0 g salts L1
. At that moment, anaerobic
granules were added to promote granulation and after 50 days new aerobic granules were formed. These
new aerobic granules remained stable for more than 100 days at the highest salinity condition with 100%
removal of the mixture of aromatic compounds.