Cultivation of microalgal-bacterial granular sludge from activated sludge via granule inoculation: Performance and microbial community

This research devoted to cultivate microalgal-bacterial granular sludge (MBGS) from activated sludge by inoculation with mature MBGS. It was found that the inoculation helped to the successful cultivation of MBGS from activated sludge within 25 days. The newly established MBGS system could stably achieve considerable organics, ammonia and phosphorus removals. Extracellular polysaccharides and aromatic proteins might contribute to the MBGS formation and growth. In addition, the inoculation led to functional microbial communities of MBGS for stable pollutants removal. Specifically, the abundance of phosphorus accumulating organisms rose significantly including Leptolyngbyaceae and Comamonadaceae. Based on the above findings, the possible process of MBGS cultivation from activated sludge by inoculation was depicted. This research would offer insight into the establishment of next-generation wastewater treatment process of MBGS from the conventional activated sludge process in future.