Elemental distribution of latex-based aerobic granules and its effects on micromorphological properties and settling performance

• Main Authors: Dahalan, Farrah Aini, Ong, Soon An, Parmin, Nor Azizah, Md. Din, Mohd. Fadhil, Rezania, Shahalbaldin, Syafiuddin, Achmad
• Format: Article
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2022
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/103744/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tqem.21872

This study focuses on the settling profile and chemical characteristics of latex aerobic granules cultivated from rubber industrial wastewater. Latex-based aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was cultivated using sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in supplemented with synthetic wastewater (SW) as nutrients feeding for biogranulation process. The bioreactor was operated for 24 h with eight series of intermittent 3 h SBR cycles continuously. The SBR configuration comprises of five operation phases from SW feeding, aeration, settling, and effluent decanting to idle. Latex granules exhibit a loose and irregular structure dominated by coccal-shaped bacteria with an average size of 4.0–5.0 mm and a settling velocity of 0.35–0.53 m h–1. The elemental analysis using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) showed that the latex granules contained various elements while X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis suggested the presence of zincowoodwardite, berlinite, rutile, and quartz. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis revealed the presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons, alkene, alkyne, and tertiary amine.