The Patent Office of the Republic of Poland granted the Białystok University of Technology (PB) a patent for an invention called “A method of producing aerobic granular activated sludge”. The solution is the result of several years of work by a team of scientists from the Department of Technology in Environmental Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences of the BUT.

“The method developed by us can be implemented in wastewater treatment plants, where the technological line is based on the use of sequential biological reactors”, emphasizes Dr Piotr Ofman, co-inventor.

The method is based on the use of a consortium of microorganisms for the biodegradation of carbon compounds, nitrogen and phosphorus forms. The biomass formed in this process takes the form of granules and settles much faster than conventional flocculent activated sludge. This property reduces the need to use multi-chamber reactors and recirculation, which can solve a number of operational problems and reduce the operating costs of wastewater treatment plants.