In view of water-resource depletion, treated wastewater can serve as an alternative source for crop irrigation. However, conventional wastewater-treatment plants are energy-intensive and costly to construct and operate, especially for lower middle-income countries. The present study focused on improving the quality of wastewater by incorporating a coupled microalgal–bacterial biofilm (CMBB) treatment in wastewater ponds. Standard polyether sponges were dipped in raw wastewater samples to enhance biofilm development on them. The enriched sponges were used to treat wastewater, with or without external energy for aeration. Wastewater parameters were analyzed during the enrichment and treatment processes. The CMBB technology and aeration resulted in similar improvement of effluent quality, but the former saved on energy costs, and reduced total chemical oxygen demand (COD) by 36 % within 24 h and 71 % within 4 days; the values of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonium and phosphates decreased by 80 %, 64 % and 95 %, respectively, within 7 days. The resultant COD and BOD values were below the maximum allowed for reuse and discharge.

考虑到水资源的枯竭，经过处理的废水可以作为农作物灌溉的替代来源。但是，常规废水处理厂的能源消耗大，建造和运营成本高，特别是对于中低收入国家而言。本研究的重点是通过在废水池中引入微藻-细菌生物膜耦合处理（CMBB）来提高废水的质量。将标准聚醚海绵浸入未经处理的废水样品中，以增强其上生物膜的形成。富集的海绵用于处理有或没有外部能量进行曝气的废水。在浓缩和处理过程中分析了废水参数。CMBB技术和曝气技术可以类似地提高废水质量，但前者节省了能源成本，在24小时内将总化学需氧量（COD）降低了36％，在4天内降低了71％；在7天内，生化需氧量（BOD），铵和磷酸盐的值分别下降了80％，64％和95％。所得的COD和BOD值低于重新使用和排放所允许的最大值。