För att simulera aktivslamprocessen på ett reningsverk krävs en dynamisk modell som realistiskt beskriver processen. 1987 kom IWA, International Water Association med ASM1, Activated Sludge model no. 1 som fortfarande är den mest använda modellen för att beskriva denna process. I detta examensarbete har ASM1 används för att beskriva aktivslamprocessen på Henriksdals reningsverk i Stockholm. Arbetet har utförts som en del i ett europeiskt projekt, HIPCON (Holistic Integrated Process CONtrol) på IVL, Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB. Arbetet har gått ut på att ta fram en modell som realistiskt beskriver aktivslamprocessen och eftersedimenteringen. För att göra detta har en referensmodell i MATLAB/Simulink använts som grund och byggts om för att likna processen vid Henriksdal. Denna modell i Simulink använder ASM1 för att beskriva aktivslamprocessen. Eftersedimenteringen modelleras med en massbalansmodell där sedimenteringshastigheten beskrivs av en dubbelexponentiell sedimenteringsfunktion. Både ASM1 och sedimenteringsfunktionen använder en mängd olika parametrar för att beskriva processerna och dessa måste kalibreras fram för den process som skall modelleras. Aktivslamprocessen är en biologisk process som beror på en mängd yttre och inre faktorer och är unik för varje reningsverk. Därför finns det inte något enkelt sätt att kalibrera en modell på och information för det enskilda reningsverket i fråga måste tas fram. I detta arbete har två mätkampanjer utförts på Henriksdal för att få mätserier till kalibrering och validering samt information om avloppsvattnets sammansättning. Litteraturstudier har också genomförts för att få information om vilka parametervärden som är av störst intresse för modellen samt i vilket område varje parameter kan förväntas finnas. Arbetet har sedan gått ut på att efter riktlinjer för kalibrering funna i litteraturen ta fram en modell som så realistiskt som möjligt beskriver processen på Henriksdal. Först genomfördes en kalibrering med medelvärden för att hitta jämviktstillstånd och därmed en stabil modell på länge sikt. Utifrån den modellen utfördes sedan en dynamisk kalibrering för att få en modell som beskriver även kortsiktiga och snabba förändringar. Till sist utfördes en validering för att kontrollera om modellen fungerar även för en dataserie som ej använts vid kalibrering. Den framtagna modellen fungerade mycket bra för att modellera medelvärden på lång sikt. För snabba förändringar verkade modellen ligga fel i tiden och troligtvis var den reella uppehållstiden kortare än den teoretiska och bidrar till sämre modellanpassning. / To simulate the activated sludge process at a wastewater treatment plant a dynamic model that describes the process is needed. In 1987 IWA, International Water Association presented ASM1, Activated Sludge Model No.1 which still is the most widely used model for this process. In this thesis the ASM1 has been used to describe the activated sludge process. The work is a part of a European project, HIPCON (Holistic Integrated Process CONtrol) at IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute. The main objective of the work was to calibrate a model that realistically describes the activated sludge process and secondary sedimentation at Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant in Stockholm. A benchmark model in MATLAB/Simulink was used as a base and rebuilt and extended to fit the process of Henriksdal. In the model ASM1 is used to describe the activated sludge process. The settler is modelled with a mass balance model where the settling velocity is described by a double exponential function. The parameters used in both models have to be calibrated to fit the wastewater treatment plant. To find information about Henriksdal two measuring campaigns were performed to provide data for calibration and validation and to gather information about the composition of the incoming wastewater. From this data a model was developed and calibrated for the process at Henriksdal. After calibration the obtained model worked very well for modelling average values but did not adjust quite as well to fast dynamic changes.

This thesis work was made for Södra Cell Mörrums bruk in Blekinge. The purpose of the work was to develop a computer model in the simulation program Extend for the removal and balance of organic oxygen consuming substances, measured as COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), in the new biological treatment plant in the mill. The plant produces two different pulp products, TCF- (Totally Chlorine Free) pulp and ECF- (Elementary Chlorine Free) pulp, for sale. The different bleaching procedures affect the characteristic of the wastewater and thus the effectiveness of the biological treatment plant. In the model that was developed the COD in the wastewater was divided into five different COD-fractions: soluble easily degradable (SS), soluble hardly degradable (SR), soluble inert (SI), particulate inert (XI) and particulate biomass (XB). To create the model FlowMac™ was used as a base. FlowMac™ is a library module in Extend adapted for pulp and paper mills. Some of the blocks only needed a slight modification while others, for example the sedimentation basin and the bioblocks, had to be done from scratch. The calibration of the model was made from data from a period of eleven weeks and a validation was made from data that differed as much as possible from the calibration data. Then the model was used to find out in what way an increase in production to 480 000 annual tons should affect the discharge of organic oxygen consumption substances. Results from the model indicates that the goals for the total COD-discharge will be hard to achieve with an increase in production to 480 000 annual tons. Despite the fact that production of TCF-pulp generates more COD than ECF-production the total discharge of COD is lower at TCF-production. The reason is that easier degradable COD is generated in TCF-bleaching. One of the major problems is that the torrent of water that is bypassed the biological treatment plant contains a large amount of COD and the efficiency of the treatment plant must be very high if the goals for the total COD-discharge shouldn’t be exceeded. / Det här examensarbetet gjordes för Södra Cell på Mörrums Bruk i Blekinge. Arbetet bestod i att göra en modell i simuleringsprogrammet Extend över nedbrytningen och massbalansen av organiska syreförbrukande ämnen, mätt som COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), i den nybyggda biologiska reningsanläggningen på bruket. Mörrums bruk är en sulfatmassafabrik som producerar både TCF- (Totally Chlorine Free) och ECF- (Elementary Chlorine Free) massa för avsalu. De olika blekningsmetoderna påverkar sammansättningen på avloppsvattnet och därmed också den biologiska reningsanläggningens reduktion av COD. I modellen som utvecklades delades inkommande COD i obehandlat vatten upp i fem olika COD-fraktioner: löst lättnedbrytbart (SS), löst svårnedbrytbart (SR), löst inert (SI), partikulärt inert (XI) och partikulärt nedbrytbart COD i form av biomassa (XB). För att bygga modellen användes FlowMac™ som utgångspunkt. FlowMac™ är en biblioteksmodul i Extend avpassad för pappersbruk. En del block behövde bara modifieras medan andra block, t.ex. sedimenteringen och bioblocken, fick byggas till. Modellen kalibrerades med medelvärden från en elvaveckorsperiod och en validering gjordes med data från några veckor med mer extrema värden på inkommande vatten. Med modellen gjordes en simulering för att undersöka vad en produktionsökning till 480 000 årston skulle innebära med avseende på utsläppen av organiska syreförbrukande ämnen. Resultat från modellen tyder på att det vid en ökning av produktionen till 480 000 årston blir svårt att nå de uppställda totala utsläppsmålen för COD. Vid produktion av TCF-massa bildas mer COD men utsläppsmängderna är lägre än vid ECF-produktion. Anledningen är att den COD som bildas ut vid TCF-blekning innehåller en större mängd lättnedbrytbart COD. En bidragande orsak till att det blir svårt att hålla utsläppsmålen för COD är att de flöden som leds förbi reningsanläggningen innehåller mycket COD vilket gör att verkningsgraden över reningsanläggningen måste vara hög för att klara målen för totala COD-utsläppet.

Avloppsreningsverk står inför uppgiften att rena inkommande vatten för att möta lagstiftade gränsvärden till en så låg kostnad som möjligt. Att syresätta biologiska reningsprocesser är kostsamt eftersom luftningsanordningen förbrukar mycket energi. Ungefär en femtedel av Himmerfjärdsverkets totala elenergiförbrukning går till luftning av biologiska processer. För att öka Himmerfjärdsverkets energieffektivitet startades under 2010 experiment med olika strategier för luftflödesstyrning. En av verkets nitrifikationsbassänger byggdes då om för att möjliggöra zonvis reglering av syrehalten. Syftet med denna studie var att utvärdera reglering med ammoniumåterkoppling och syrehaltsprofil för styrning av Himmerfjärdsverkets nitrifikationsprocess. Utvärderingen baserades på reningsresultat och energiförbrukning. Med nuvarande reglerstrategi varieras luftningen genom återkoppling från syrehalten i den andra av sex zoner i varje luftad bassäng. Denna reglering medför att det uppstår ett överskott av syre i slutet av bassängerna. Det finns således potential att spara energi om luftningen kan regleras så att syreöverskott undviks. Modellsimuleringar i Benchmark Simulation Model no. 1 (BSM1) användes för att jämföra snabb och långsam ammoniumåterkoppling samt olika typer av syrehaltsprofiler inför försök i full skala. Modellen byggdes om och kalibrerades för att efterlikna Himmerfjärdsverkets process. Strategierna utvärderades för två scenarier; ett utan några övre begränsningar för luftningen och ett där Himmerfjärdsverkets luftflödesbegränsningar simulerades. Resultatet från simuleringarna visade att långsam ammoniumåterkoppling var den mest energieffektiva reglerstrategin i båda scenarierna. Resultatet visade även att det var möjligt att minska syretoppar genom en stigande syrehaltsprofil längs med bassängens flödesriktning. Genom fullskaleförsök utvärderades syrehaltsprofil och ammoniumåterkoppling. Resultatet visade att ammoniumåterkoppling var den reglerstrategi som förbrukade minst luft per mängd avskiljt ammoniumkväve och jämfört med ursprunglig reglering erhölls en 16 % lägre energiförbrukning. / Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have the challenging task to treat incoming water in order to meet the discharge limits at the lowest possible cost. Aeration of biological treatment processes is one of the most energy consuming posts at a WWTP. At Himmerfjärden WWTP approximately one fifth of the total electric energy consumption is used for aeration of biological processes. With the purpose of making Himmerfjärden WWTP more energy efficient full-scale experiments with different aeration control strategies started in 2010. In one of the aerated tanks a new control system was installed in order to allow zonewise control of the dissolved oxygen (DO). The objective of this master thesis was to evaluate ammonium feedback control and DO-profile control at Himmerfjärden WWTP. The evaluation was made with regard to effluent quality and aeration needs. With the original control strategy aeration is varied to maintain a constant concentration of dissolved oxygen in the second of six zones in each aerated tank. With this control strategy oxygen peaks occur in the last zones of the aerated tank. Thus, there is potential to save energy if these oxygen peaks can be avoided. Simulations were carried out in the Benchmark Simulation Model no. 1 (BSM1) where fast and slow ammonium feedback control and different DO-profiles were evaluated. The model was modified and calibrated to resemble the process at Himmerfjärden WWTP. The simulations showed that the slow ammonium feedback control was the most energy-efficient strategy. The results also showed that it was possible to reduce oxygen peaks by increasing the oxygen set-point along the aerated tank, e.g. an increasing DO-profile. The full-scale experiments included ammonium feedback control and DO-profile control. The results show that ammonium feedback control needed less airflow per amount ammonium removed, compared to both the DO-profile and the original control strategy, with a 16 % lower energy consumption compared to the original control strategy.

Biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is produced in the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. After anaerobic digestion, the digested sludge is often allowed to degas for one or two days. This gas is seldom utilised, but if the degassing could be accelerated, utilisation would be easier. Ultrasound can be used as a pretreatment method for waste activated sludge. It has a disintegrating effect on the sludge and causes lysis of bacteria in the sludge. It also speeds up the hydrolysis; the limiting step of anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge. Ultrasound can be used to degas waterbased liquids. Ultrasonic degassing of sewage sludge has not been examined previously. The present study aims to investigate the effect of ultrasound on waste activated sludge as well as the potential of ultrasound to speed up the degassing of digested sludge. A semi-continuous, lab-scale digestion experiment was performed with four reactors: two receiving untreated sludge and two receiving treated sludge. The effect of the sonicator was 420 W and the treatment time was 6 min, which corresponds to an energy input of 8.4 kWh/m3. Total solids (TS) of the waste activated sludge was ~3.5 %. The ultrasonic treatment caused an increase in gas production of 13 %. There was no difference in methane content. The concentration of filterable chemical oxygen demand (fCOD) increased 375 %, or from 2.8 % to 11 % of total COD. In terms of energy loss/gain the increase in gas production resulted in a loss of 2.7 kWh/m3, i.e. more energy is needed to treat the sludge than the potential energy of the increased gas production. However, if the sludge is thickened to a TS >5 %, a net energy gain should be reached. The effect of ultrasound on the degassing of digested sludge was examined in three barrels. The degassing was measured with and without circulation as well as with ultrasonic treatment. The digested sludge had a gas emission rate of 115 L/(m3 day). No direct burst of gas occurred due to ultrasonic treatment. Over two days more gas was emitted from the barrel equipped with ultrasound, probably due to an induced post-digestion. Thus, ultrasonic pretreatment of waste activated sludge increases the biogas yield. It is inconclusive, whether ultrasonic treatment of digested sludge effects the degassing or not.

Modern wastewater treatment provides great benefit to society by reducing the transmission of disease. In recent years computer simulation of whole plants has allowed for improved design and more economical consideration of alternatives. One new alternative for wastewater treatment is the pre-treatment of sludges, although this technology has not yet been adapted for computer simulation. This thesis describes research which was conducted to describe pre-treatments in terms appropriate for whole-plant computer models. Pre-treatment shows promise in terms of reducing sludge, a waste product the disposal of which can be costly depending on the applicable regulations. At the same time pre-treatment can improve the generation of biogas, which is readily converted to heat and/or electricity and can help to offset treatment energy requirements. Pre-treatments can be broadly categorized as physical, chemical, or thermal. For this study, ultrasound was selected as a model physical pre-treatment and ozone as a model chemical pre-treatment. The range of doses to be tested was obtained by reviewing earlier literature. Waste activated sludge was obtained from pilot reactors treating screened municipal wastewater. This sludge was subjected to a range of doses in batch reactors. Conventional laboratory analyses were used to determine the effects of pre-treatment on such parameters as chemical oxidant demand, solids, and various nitrogen fractions. As well, respirometry was utilized to estimate the biologically active and bioavailable fractions. A novel technique for analysis of respirometric data was developed, which consisted of fitting synthetic oxygen uptake rate curves to the measured data. Both ultrasound and ozone were observed to decrease the amount of active biomass present while increasing the amount of biodegradable material. The conversions between these fractions were modeled using simple functions of pre-treatment dose. For ultrasound, a conversion which exponentially decayed with respect to increasing ultrasound dose was used to relate these fractions. For ozone, the conversion from active biomass to slowly degradable material occurred more slowly than the conversion to rapidly degradable material; as such two conversions were modeled, each exponentially decaying with respect to dose but with different dose constants. The observed conversions were added to a whole-plant model and the implications of the models were considered for one simple wastewater treatment plant. Both pre-treatments showed a decrease in total sludge production and an increase in biogas production, as predicted by earlier research. Published full-scale results were not reported with sufficient detail to be replicated, and so a quantitative comparison was not possible.

Waste activated sludge (WAS) pretreatment technologies are typically evaluated in terms of the associated improvement in biogas and sludge production during digestion and post-digestion dewaterability. However, WAS properties, and hence the impact of pretreatment on WAS properties, are dependent upon the raw wastewater composition and configuration of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). A generally accepted means of characterizing and comparing all pretreatment processes does not exist. The motivation for this project was to evaluate the impact of pretreatment on WAS properties in terms of changes in COD fractionation. The first objective of this study was to fractionate the COD of the WAS before and after pretreatment to show how pretreatment may increase the rate and extent of aerobic digestion. The second objective was to develop a COD-based stoichiometric pretreatment model that may be integrated into WWTP simulations. A bench-scale biological reactor (BR) with a solids retention time (SRT) of 5 days was started up with WAS from the Waterloo WWTP. The BR was fed daily with a completely biodegradable synthetic substrate so that the BR WAS contained only biomass and decay products after 3 SRTs of operation. In the first phase of the study, an aerobic digester (AD) with a SRT of 10 d was fed daily with BR WAS. The BR-AD system was operated at steady state for one month. A range of physical and biochemical properties were regularly measured in each process stream. Offline respirometric tests were regularly conducted to determine the aerobic degradability and fractionate the COD of the BR and AD WAS. The oxygen uptake rate (OUR) associated with the daily addition of BR WAS to the AD was determined as an additional measurement of the aerobic degradability of the BR WAS. In the second phase of the study, the BR WAS was pretreated prior to being fed daily to the AD. High pressure thermal hydrolysis (HPTH) pretreatment was selected for this project since it is one of the most popular and promising pretreatment techniques. A sealed volume of BR WAS was heated to 150°C at 3 bars for 30 minutes. The same physical, biochemical and biological tests used to characterize the process streams in Phase 1 were employed to characterize those in Phase 2. The Phase 2 system was operated for two months at steady-state. The results of several independent tests showed that the COD of the BR WAS was comprised of storage products (XSTO) in addition to active heterotrophs (Zbh) and decay products (Ze). However, it was shown that the AD WAS only contained Zbh and Ze as XSTO was depleted in the AD. HPTH pretreatment did not reduce the TCOD concentration of the WAS however it did solubilize 56 ± 7% of COD, 49% ± 11% of organic nitrogen, 56 ± 10% of VSS and did not solubilize ISS. Furthermore, pretreatment did not generate soluble non-biodegradable COD. These findings were consistent with prior research on HPTH WAS pretreatment. Pretreatment increased the rate at which the BR WAS was aerobically degraded. The offline respirometric tests showed that the pretreated BR WAS contained a substantial amount of readily biodegradable COD (Sbsc). However, pretreatment did not increase the extent of biodegradation. The results of several independent tests showed that the non-biodegradable COD component of the BR WAS, i.e. Ze, was not converted to biodegradable COD by pretreatment. A COD-based stoichiometric pretreatment model was developed for the dose of HPTH pretreatment employed in this study. When this model was integrated into BioWin®, it was able to accurately simulate both the steady state performance of the overall system employed in this study as well as dynamic respirometry results. The experimental results showed that the TCOD of the BR WAS consisted of 51% Zbh, 12% Ze and 37% XSTO and the pretreated BR WAS consisted of 12% Ze and a negligible amount of Zbh. The pretreatment model verified these fractions and predicted that the pretreated BR WAS also contained 54% Sbsc and 32% slowly biodegradable COD (Xsp). The approach described in this study may be followed to determine the impacts of pretreatment on Zbh, Ze and XSTO when other doses of HPTH pretreatment and other pretreatment techniques are employed.

<p>Large amounts of human pharmaceutical products are consumed worldwide. Many drugs and their metabolites, referred to as pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), are not fully metabolized prior to household discharge resulting in their common occurrence in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In most instances, WWTPs present the first treatment opportunity for removing PhACs and preventing significant environmental exposure. Because most municipal WWTPs rely on the microbial component of the activated sludge process, there is a need to estimate the influence of PhACs in wastewater influent on the activated sludge microbial communities and the treatment performance of WWTPs. The objective of this dissertation was to determine the impact of selected PhACs (i.e., ketoprofen, naproxen, clofibric acid, carbamazepine and gemfibrozil) on activated sludge microorganisms and key individual microbial species in domestic wastewater treatment. Analyses were performed in batch reactors initially and then in laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBR) which mimic WWTP operations. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were selected as indicator organisms because of their importance in wastewater treatment and demonstrated sensitiveness to toxic compounds. </p><p>The batch experiments results suggested that microbial growth inhibition was correlated to organic loadings. In the presence of 0.2% (v/v) ethanol, significant inhibition, ranging from 34 to 43%, was observed for all PhACs other than clofibric acid. </p><p>Nitrification inhibition studies using Nitrosomonas europaea, a model AOB strain showed that ketoprofen, naproxen, carbamazepine and gemfibrozil inhibited nitrite production. The corresponding maximum nitrification inhibition rates were 25, 29, 22 and 26%, respectively. Inhibition was shown to increase with PhAC concentration for concentrations greater than 0.1 µM. Results from membrane integrity tests suggest that the inhibition may be due to the disturbance of the cell membrane by PhACs and such inhibition was shown to be irreversible. </p><p>Even though PhACs were shown to inhibit the nitrification rate in pure culture studies, the performance of SBRs exposed to individual PhACs was not adversely affected neither in terms of COD nor ammonia removal. Microbial fingerprinting for both total bacteria and AOB confirmed that no significant shifts occurred when microbial communities were exposed to PhACs. However, some PhACs introduced in binary mixture were found to both inhibit the nitrification of N. europaea as well as the performance of SBRs. The mixture composed of 0.5 &#956;M ketoprofen and 0.5 &#956;M naproxen showed significant inhibition (25%) on the nitrite production of N. europaea although neither 0.5 &#956;M ketoprofen nor 0.5 &#956;M naproxen had significant effect when presented alone. Similarly, both COD and ammonia removal were significantly impacted by binary mixtures of PhACs. These results suggest that mixture effects can play an important role in an overall treatment's nitrification potential and this phenomenon should be further investigated.</p> / Dissertation

This dissertation consists of two parts on the treatment of hydrogen sulfide and odorants in gases emitted from rubber processing industry. In the first part, we study performance of removal hydrogen sulfide with bioscrubber. An activated sludge aeration tank (W ¡Ñ L ¡Ñ H = 0.40 ¡Ñ 0.40 ¡Ñ 3.00 m) with a 2 mm-orifice air sparger was used to treat gaseous hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The investigation tested the operational stability as well as how the removal ability of H2S was affected by influent H2S concentration (C0 = 50-900 ppm), aeration intensity (Q/V = 0.083-0.50 m3 m-3 min-1), liquid depth (H = 0.5-3.0 m), and mixed-liquor suspended solids concentration (MLSS = 970-2,800 mg L-1). Experimental results indicate that H2S removal efficiencies of 96% and over 98% were obtained with H = 0.5 m and H > 1.0 m in the cited operation conditions, respectively. Experimental results also indicate no sludge bulking problem occurred with total sulfide loadings of 0.047-0.148 kg S kg-1 MLSS d-1. The second part aimed at the removal of odorous compounds in gases emitted from rubber processing industries. Simulated odorous gas for test was prepared by mixing fresh air and an odorous gas drawn from an oven in which a sample of rubber powder was kept either at 160¢XC (for a thermal plastic rubber) or 200¢XC (for a thermal setting rubber). The prepared odorous gas was then premixed with a definite amount of ozone-enriched air and introduced into a contact system. The contact system consists of two sieve-plate columns connected in series and each column has four 1-L chambers. Depending on with or without introducing circulating scrubbing water into the columns, the oxidation reaction could be either wet or dry one. Results indicate the wet oxidation got better performances than the dry one. The former got 97 and over 90% removal of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and odorous intensity removal, respectively, with the operation conditions of initial ozone concentration 4.0 ppm, THC (total hydrocarbon) concentrations 6.5¡V10.3 ppm (methane equivalent), oxidation temperature 37.3¢XC, gas empty bed retention time (EBRT) 12 s, and liquid/gas rate ratio 0.01 m3/m3. With conditions similar to those cited above, odor concentration (dilutions to the threshold, D/T) in the test gas could be reduced from 1,738¡V3,090 to 31¡V98 with EBRTs of 11.4¡V14.5 s. Activated carbon is effective for both physical and chemical removals of residual VOCs, odorous compounds, and ozone in the effluent gas from the ozonation system. Economical analysis indicates that around US$ 0.16 is required for treating 1,000 m3 of the tested foul gas by the proposed ozonation process.

Most of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are operated under low loading both in water quality and water capacity (flow rate) in Taiwan. Because various treatment methods used in WWTP would cause different power consumptions. In general, the flow rate of wastewater treated is proportional to the power consumption. The purpose of this study is simulating water quality and water capacity with a case of municipal wastewater treatment plant, using standard activated sludge method. In this work we will investigate the feasibility of save power using operation and parameters adjustment in wastewater system. A further step is to conduct the save energy in current WWTP under normal wastewater treatment capacity and national effluent standard. Results showed the major save energy was at inflow pump and aeration system of biological treatment stage. Both power consumptions of two were about 60 ~70 % of total power consumption in the plant. Thus we should focus the operating conditions to plan the save energy project, and calculate the total power system and energy consumption of all unit facilities before we are going to improve the energy save in WWTP. Important note is firstly to select units and facilities having high energy consumption for evaluating the possibility of energy save. Secondly is develop and using a good management system to attain the goal of save energy.

Nutrients and cations have significant effect on activated sludge characteristics and therefore effect the efficiency of whole processes. To determine the properties in phosphorus deficient medium and the effect of calcium ions two reactor sets with two different phosphorus concentration (C/N/P=100/5/0.05 and C/N/P=100/5/1), three different concentrations of calcium (0.5, 5, 15 meq/L) were operated with 8 days of sludge residence time and an effective volume of 2 L. Results showed amount and composition of EPS was dependent on calcium and phosphorus concentrations. Except for the highest calcium concentration, increase in phosphorus concentration resulted in increase in total EPS production. Under phosphorus deficient conditions, calcium ions stimulated the production of carbohydrate type polymers and viscous bulking was observed. However, the increase in phosphorus concentration led to increase in protein type polymer production and bulking condition was cured. Addition of calcium ions increased conductivity in both cases, but increase in phosphorus concentration caused decrease in conductivity. Increase in phosphorus concentration had improved settleability, dewaterability and rheology of sludge. Moreover, effluent turbidity was decreased and COD removal efficiency was recorded as greater than 95 % for all calcium concentrations under phosphorus sufficient conditions. Microscopic analyses showed that under phosphorus deficient conditions flocs were weak, dispersed and nonresistant. Increase in phosphorus concentration resulted in improvement of floc structure. Same Enterobacter and Citrobacter species were identified at all calcium concentrations under phosphorus deficient conditions. Yet, under phosphorus sufficient conditions different species were identified in control reactor as compared to 5 meq/L and 15 meq/L concentrations.