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Updated: Sep 13, 2025

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Harnessing metabolic pathway modulation and multiple endogenous driving forces for sustainable nitrogen removal from
Pengcheng Wang1, Jieying Zhou1, Bin Lu1
1State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China.
Abstract:
The treatment of high-ammonia wastewater with low chemical oxygen demand (COD) to total nitrogen (C/N) ratio faces critical bottlenecks, notably excessive energy consumption and unsustainable external carbon supplementation. In this study, a novel denitrification-dual-stage simultaneous nitrification-anammox-denitrification (DDS) process was pioneered for high-ammonia wastewater with extremely low C/N ratio. DDS system has high nitrogen removal efficiency (98.44 ± 0.14 %) for wastewater with 1000 mg/L ammonia and C/N only 1:1, while demonstrating good adaptability at C/N ratios of 1:1-3:1. Its effluent can meet the most stringent level of pollutant discharge standard for municipal wastewater treatment plants (GB18918-2002, TN ≤ 15 mg/L) in China. Mechanistic investigations combining denitrification driving forces analysis and metagenomics revealed that the co-occurrence of partial nitrification-anammox and partial nitrification-denitrification synergistically streamlined nitrogen removal routes. Concurrent multiple endogenous carbon mobilization sustainably mitigated C/N ratio limitations, ensuring system stability without exogenous organic carbon inputs. DDS system has been evaluated to save approximately 50 % aeration energy and 100 % exogenous carbon feeding compared to conventional processes. Overall, DDS system reduces the treatment difficulty and environmental risk of high-ammonia wastewater, while its lower carbon footprint provides technical support for wastewater treatment plants to meet carbon-neutrality policies and sustainable development goals.
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