title: Glycerol as a sole carbon source for enhanced biological phosphorus removal.
abstract: Wastewaters with low organic matter content are one of the major causes of EBPR failures in full-scale WWTP. This carbon source deficit can be solved by external carbon addition and glycerol is a perfect candidate since it is nowadays obtained in excess from biodiesel production. This work shows for the first time that glycerol-driven EBPR with a single-sludge SBR configuration is feasible (i.e. anaerobic glycerol degradation linked to P release and aerobic P uptake). Two different strategies were studied: direct replacement of the usual carbon source for glycerol and a two-step consortium development with glycerol anaerobic degraders and PAO. The first strategy provided the best results. The implementation of glycerol as external carbon source in full-scale WWTP would require a suitable anaerobic hydraulic retention time. An example using dairy wastewater with a low COD/P ratio confirms the feasibility of using glycerol as an external carbon source to increase P removal activity. The approach used in this work opens a new range of possibilities and, similarly, other fermentable substrates can be used as electron donors for EBPR.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. franciscojavier.guerrero@uab.cat
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guerrero
authors.forename: Carlota
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tayà
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guisasola
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Baeza
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry*; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D002244:Carbon; D005990:Glycerol