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Nitrogen removal with the anaerobic ammonium oxidation process

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Abstract

Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria convert ammonium to N2 with nitrite as the terminal electron acceptor in the absence of O2. Nitritation–anammox bioreactors provide a cost-effective and environment-friendly alternative to conventional nitrification/denitrification nitrogen removal systems. Currently, this process is only applied for ammonium removal from wastewater with high ammonium load and temperature. Nevertheless, recent results obtained with laboratory-scale bioreactors suggest new possible routes of application of the Nitritation–anammox technology including (1) municipal wastewater treatment, removal of (2) methane in combination with nitrite-reducing methane-oxidizing bacteria, (3) nitrate coupled to organic acid oxidation and (4) nitrogen oxides. The current review summarizes the state-of-the-art of the application of Nitritation–anammox systems and discusses the possibilities of utilizing these recent results for wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors like to thank the many coworkers and funding agencies (ALW, STW, EU, STOWA, Paques BV, Agentschap NL) that made this work possible. B.K., is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research grant (VENI, 863.11.003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, IWWR, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Ziye Hu & Boran Kartal

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC, Delft, The Netherlands

    Tommaso Lotti & Mark van Loosdrecht

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  1. Ziye Hu
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  2. Tommaso Lotti
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  3. Mark van Loosdrecht
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  4. Boran Kartal
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Correspondence to Boran Kartal.

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Ziye Hu and Tommaso Lotti contributed equally to this study.

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Hu, Z., Lotti, T., van Loosdrecht, M. et al. Nitrogen removal with the anaerobic ammonium oxidation process. Biotechnol Lett 35, 1145–1154 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-013-1196-4

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