Aerobic granulation is a promising technology for the removal of nutrients in wastewater. Since research to date is mainly focused at laboratory scale, a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (100 L) was operated to obtain granular sludge in aerobic conditions grown on acetate as organic carbon substrate. Selective pressure created by means of decreasing settling time and increasing organic loading rate (OLR) enhanced the formation of aerobic granular sludge. Granules appeared after 6 days and reached an average diameter around 3.5mm. The settling velocity value should be higher than 11m h(-1) in order to remove flocculent biomass. The reactor treated OLRs varying between 2.5 and 6.0 g COD L-1 d(-1) reaching removal efficiencies around 96%, which demonstrates the high activity and the ability of the system to withstand high OLR. Nevertheless, a rapid increase in the OLR produced a loss of biomass in the reactor due to breakage of the granules. (C) 2011 Society of Chemical Industry