Shut-cut nitrification characteristics of aerobic granule in a sequencing batch airlift reactor at low temperature

To investigate the shut-cut nitrification characteristics of aerobic granule, an aerobic granular se-quencing batch airlift reactor (AG-SBAR) was carried out with mixed carbon sources of sodium acetate and glu-cose at 10± 1℃. Results indicated that ammonia oxidizing bacteria was accumulated inside the aerobic gran-ules and the reactor performed stably with shut-cut nitrification for a long term at low temperature. During the stable operation period, the effluent ammonia nitrogen concentration was maintained at 13.6 mg/L without ni-trate and nitrite when the COD/N ratio was 20: 1. However, the effluent concentration of ammonia nitrogen was below 0. 5 mg/L with effluent nitrosation ratio of 96. 7% on average when the COD/N ratio was reduced to 15:1 and 10: 1. And the effluent phosphorus concentration was less than 0. 4 mg/L during the stable period with the sludge retention time of 30 d. The phosphorus removal efficiency was not strongly influenced by the adjust-ment of COD/N ratio in this experiment. The removal efficiencies for COD, NH4+-N and PO43--P were 91.3%-94. 6%, 97.9%-99. 7% and 97. 1%-99. 5%, respectively.