The competition between polyphosphate-accumulating organisms and glycogen-accumulating organisms: Temperature effects and modelling

Due to relatively high phosphorus removal efficiency and economy, the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in activated sludge wastewater treatment systems is a widely applied process to control and prevent eutrophication in surface water bodies. However, the EBPR process can be prone to suffer of upsets and deterioration. Since glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAO) compete with polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAO), which are the microorganisms that perform the biological phosphorus removal process, the proliferation of GAO has been linked with the instability of the EBPR process. Based on laboratory- and full-scale experimental work as well as mathematical modeling, this research contributes to get a better understanding about the environmental and operating conditions affecting the PAO-GAO competition and, therefore, the EBPR process performance and stability