Notice of RetractionAerobic Granulation in a Modified Continuous Flow System

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE\´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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A modified continuous flow system in the laboratory was used for aerobic granulation. This system consists of three columns per line. The column in the middle was kept aeration any time, other two columns alternately acted as aeration and sludge settling tanks. Feast-famine, escape of granules destroying, high shear force, and selection pressure were considered in this continuous flow system. This system was in a sequence of "from left to right" and "from right to left" flowing pattern keeping a plug-flow and sludge recycle. After 40 days operation, aerobic granulation was successfully achieved. The average diameter of granules was more than 1 mm, the settling velocity was about 40 m/h, the sludge volume index after 10 minutes (SVI₁₀) ranged from 50 to 60 mL/gMLSS. The microscopic images show relative loose and fluffy structure of granules. The average removal rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH₄-N was about 96% and 94%, respectively.