Anaerobic wastewater treatment is a well-established technology, which converts organic pollutants contained in wastewater into energy-rich biogas.
Design of compact anaerobic bioreactors requires formation of granular sludge, i.e. spherically shaped biofilms that have excellent settling properties. However, for sometimes unknown reasons granular sludge does not form at all, or only develops at very slow rates. The main goal of this project is to gain more knowledge about the granulation process and use this knowledge to improve it.