The objective of this study was to evaluate aerobic granules formation and simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal treating high strength ammonia wastewater in sequencing batch reactor (SBR). After successful aerobic granulation, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations of the SBR increased from 3.11 to 14.52 g/L, while sludge volume index (SVI) values decreased from 144.61 to 30.32 mL/g. Protein (PN) and polysaccharide (PS) concentrations increased from 60.2 and 12.5 mg/L to 101.1 and 15.8 mg/L, respectively. Simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal was enhanced by altering the influent chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (COD/N) ratio. At COD/N ratio of 9, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiencies were up to 89.8% and 77.5%, respectively. Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) spectroscopy showed that the chemical compositions of sludge EPS were changed during granulation process. The results could provide useful information to promote nitrogen and phosphorus removal using aerobic granular sludge technology. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.