Biogranulation Technologies for Wastewater Treatment

Microbial fast-settling granules have practical importance in both anaerobic and aerobic biological wastewater treatment. Advantages of granules are retention of biomass in reactor, diversity of microorganisms, complex structure, and resistance to unfavorable conditions. Granulation is due to specific selection procedures in bioreactor. Microbial granules can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater for removal of organic matter, xenobiotics, nutrients, and heavy metals. The book covers almost all aspect of formation and use of microbial granules in wastewater treatment. The data on aerobic microbial granulation are related mostly to laboratory systems because there are just few pilot systems in the world using aerobic microbial granules and there is no one constructed industrial facility using aerobic microbial granulation yet. However, by the analogy with anaerobic granulation which is used now worldwide, it would be possible to predict wide applications of aerobic granulation. The authors hope that this book will help researchers and engineers to develop these new biotechnologies of wastewater treatment based on aerobic granulation. * Covers all aspects of formation, organization, and use of microbial granules in wastewater treatment * Integrates engineering, microbiology, and biotechnology of microbial granules * Comprises of deep fundamental data as well as practical information for applications of microbial granules in wastewater treatment