The interactions between the soluble extracellular polymeric substances (S-EPS), bound EPS (B-EPS) of algae and heavy metal, would affect the removal of ammonium (NH4+-N) and orthophosphate (PO43 -P) from wastewater by algae-based techniques. This study investigated the role of Cd-2(+)-mediated EPS from Chlorella vulgaris on NH4+-N and PO43 -P removal. The results showed that the removal efficiencies of NH4+-N and PO43 -P still separately remained 62.6% and 64.9% under 1.0 mg/L Cd2+, compared to those without Cd2+, mainly attributing to enhanced S-EPS and B-EPS contents of the algae. The increased of PS (polysaccharides) and PN (proteins, e.g., tryptophan-like and tyrosine-like components) led to accelerated interactions of Cd2+ with PS and PN in EPS fractions, especially for B-EPS, due to a higher detected distribution of Cd2+ (e.g., about 55.4% in B-EPS). Thus, algae-based techniques are stable treatment methods for wastewater in which NH4+-N and PO43 -P coexist with heavy metals. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.