BACKGROUND Secondary effluent wastewaters still contain resources including water and nutrients that must be safely reused and recovered. In this study, the combined role of microalgae as disinfectant and nutrient removal agent was evaluated for the potential application of a microalgae-based process as a cost-effective tertiary treatment. Nutrient removal, biomass productivity and disinfection performances were monitored in laboratory-scale photobioreactors (batch and continuous) fed on a secondary effluent mixed with a 10% on influent collected at a large municipal wastewater treatment plant where tertiary disinfection is performed by UV treatment. RESULTS In microalgae-based batch disinfection tests, Escherichia coli counts (0.5 +/- 0.7 log CFU 100 mL(-1)) were comparable to those after traditional UV process (0.7 +/- 0.84 log CFU 100 mL(-1)) and lower than in tests where light was applied without microalgae. In the following continuous test, E. coli counts were reduced by one order of magnitude and the pathogenic strain of E. coli O157:H7/H-, Salmonella spp. and indicators such as Bacteroides spp. and Enterococcus spp. were never detectable in the effluents by molecular tools. Total nitrogen and phosphorus removals reached 93 and 100%, respectively, while the algal biomass productivity of the system averaged 50 +/- 30 mg TSS L-1 day(-1). CONCLUSIONS The effluents of the photobioreactors reached quality standards appropriate for water reuse. Moreover, nutrients could be recovered through the generation of algal biomass suitable for further valorization. (c) 2019 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.