As a biomass carrier, mycelial pellet of Aspergillus niger Y3 was used to immobilize the aniline-degrading bacterium Acinetobacter calcoaceticus JH-9 and the mix culture of the COD rapid degrading bacteria in this study. Tourmaline was added to this system in order to improve the aniline removal performance using combined mycelia! pellet. Flask experiments were performed to investigate the promotion mechanism. The results showed that the start-up time was shorted from 7 cycles to only 1 cycle. The aniline and COD concentration in effluent were much lower in the tourmaline-adding system. It was suggested that tourmaline could enhance the number and activity of the aniline-degrading bacteria immobilized on the mycelia! pellet. Therefore, the performance of mycelial pellet as a biomass carrier could be improved by tourmaline. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.