A comparative study of phosphorus removal using biopolymer from aerobic granular sludge: A factorial experimental evaluation

[Display omitted] •ALE is a new biomaterial to be considered in real-life biorefinery context.•The ALE recovery yield of 21.3% was obtained from spent aerobic granules.•The phosphorus removal of 72% was achieved using ALE beads through adsorption.•Phosphorus adsorption and desorption improve ALE’s potentiality as biosorbent. This work presented an integrated approach to recover nutrients and biomaterials from wastewater, resulting in a phosphorus-enriched biomaterial with the potential for additional applications. The present investigation explored phosphorus removal from liquid samples using ALE recovered from aerobic granular sludge. The pH of the phosphorus solution, dosage of ALE beads, temperature and initial phosphorous concentration were factors tested through a factorial experimental design, with the results compared with commercial seaweed alginate. The ALE recovery from discarded aerobic sludge granules was 21.29 ± 1.57%. ALE beads demonstrated the potential to remove phosphorus (49.54 ± 2.23%) from liquid samples better than commercial seaweed alginate (36.78 ± 2.10%). The results from the factorial experiment indicated pH and dosage of ALE beads as the main parameters for phosphorus removal. Regeneration of ALE beads and the phosphorus recovery experiments showed the potential of using this biomaterial as a biodegradable phosphorus slow-release source.