Assessment of an aerobic granular sludge system in the presence of pharmaceutically active compounds by quantitative image analysis and chemometric techniques

In this study, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was operated synthetic wastewater containing environmental relevant concentrations of 17β-estradiol (E2), 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Despite the presence studied PhAC, fraction clearly predominated (TSSgran/TSS ranging from 0.82 to 0.98) throughout monitoring period, presenting aggregates high organic (VSS/TSS above 0.83) good settling characteristics (SVI5 15 39 mL/gTSS). A principal component analysis (PCA) quantitative image (QIA) based data allowed distinguish different operational periods, namely mature granules (CONT), E2, EE2, SMX feeding periods. It further revealed positive relationship between biomass density, ability, overall contents, granulation properties, large size. Moreover, discriminant (DA) successfully discriminate not only mainly by using floccular apparent stratification contents data, but also PhAC in samples. The filamentous bacteria properties stability stratification, structure parameters were found be crucial for that purpose.