Advanced treatment of salty eutrophication water using algal-bacterial granular sludge: With focus on nitrogen removal, phosphorus removal, and lipid accumulation

A new algal-bacterial granular sludge treatment method was used to treat salty eutrophication water. The results indicated that the treatment removed more than 98% of the total inorganic nitrogen and the total phosphorus after a 15 d cultivation period using 2% salinity simulated eutrophication water. For the 4% salinity simulated water, the total phosphorus was not able to be removed and was even higher in the effluent; and the total inorganic nitrogen was only removed 17%. Thus, the algal-bacterial granules were efficient for removing nitrogen and phosphorus in 2% salinity eutrophication water but were not effective for 4% salinity water. High levels of filamentous algae proliferation growing on the surface of the granules was primarily responsible for the good performance in 2% salinity water. However, the lipid accumulation was greatly enhanced (reactor R2 at a 27.6% increase and reactor R4 at a 107% increase) for both granule types due to the algal growth. Thus, treatment of the salty eutrophication water can also greatly increase the added-value of the algal-bacterial granules.