Recovered granular sludge extracellular polymeric substances as carrier for bioaugmentation of granular sludge reactor

Abstract An increasing amount of industrial chemicals are being released into wastewater collection systems and indigenous microbial communities in treatment plants not always effective for their removal. In this work, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) recovered from aerobic granular sludge (AGS) were used as a natural carrier to immobilize specific strain, Rhodococcus sp. FP1, able degrade 2-fluorophenol (2-FP). The produced EPS granules exhibited 2-FP degrading ability 100% batch assays, retaining original activity after up 2-months storage. Furthermore, added an AGS reactor intermittently fed with saline containing 2-FP. Degradation stoichiometric fluorine release occurred 8 35 days bioaugmentation, respectively. Chemical oxygen demand removal was significantly impaired by or salinity loads. Nutrients load, but the phosphate ammonium efficiency improved 14 46% 25 42%, After feeding ceased, at low/moderate (0.6–6.0 g L?1 NaCl), completely restored, increased. 11 bacteria isolated 2-FP, indicating that horizontal gene transfer could have reactor. improvement bioreactor performance bioaugmentation immobilized maintenance cell viability through storage main advantages use which can benefit processes.