Re-cultivation of dry microalgal-bacterial granular sludge

作者：Shen, Yao; Xiao, Yabing; Xin, Jiayi; Sun, Penghui; Ji, Bin^*

来源：Algal Research-Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts, 2022, 67: 102858.

DOI：10.1016/j.algal.2022.102858

• Dry granule
• Aeration
• Non-aeration
• Granular structure
• Microbial community

Deepening the research on the storage and transportation of the microalgal-bacterial granular sludge (MBGS) will help its engineering application. Herein, re-cultivation of naturally dried MBGS was investigated. The results showed that the MBGS could be re-cultivated in 18 days in both aeration and non-aeration systems. Notably, the aeration system could facilitate granulation with superiority in both granule size and settleability of MBGS over the non-aeration system. The ammonia removal by re-cultivated MBGS under aeration condition was dramati-cally higher than non-aeration condition. In addition, the microbial community of MBGS had evolved dramat-ically after re-cultivation. Furthermore, the primary mechanism for the granule growth and the formation of new granule during the dry MBGS re-cultivation under aeration condition was deduced to be microbial coaggregation (e.g. Acinetobacter), whereas under non-aeration condition it might be ascribed to the microbial mobility. This study is expected to provide insights into the storage of MBGS and the restart of MBGS process.