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Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Enhancement mechanism of iron autotrophic denitrification system based on resource utilization of waste membranes
Zhaochuang Ma1, Siyuan Zhai1, Peizhe Sun1
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
Abstract:
Microbial-mediated iron autotrophic denitrification has gained more attention in low C/N wastewater treatment due to the organic carbon-free operation, and minimal carbon emissions. However, the selection of inexpensive iron-based electron donors, as well as the stable colonization of functional microorganisms, still restrict its application of the microbial-mediated iron autotrophic denitrification technology. In this study, we ingeniously inserted the waste iron wires into the waste membrane filaments as a component for the combination of the carrier and the electron donors. The cooperation of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with microbial-mediated iron-based autotrophic denitrification were proposed to degrade nitrate nitrogen and investigate its degradation pathways. The results showed that approximately 70.0% of the nitrate was removed in the microbial mediated iron autotrophic denitrification reactor based on the resource utilization of waste membranes (Fe-PVDF-Sludge) via various removal pathway, including abiotic removal of packing materials (13.53%), heterotrophic denitrification (15.45%), and iron autotrophic denitrification (40.43%). Through the analysis of the microbial community structure of the sludge, biofilm on the surfaces of the membrane filament, and the biofilm on the surface of iron wires, a significant spatial difference was observed among different functional microorganisms. Among them, a significant enrichment of iron autotrophic denitrifiers was found to contribute 40.43% nitrate removal, and the relative abundance of autotrophic denitrifiers ranged from 2.0% to 8.01%. The integration of waste membrane filament and iron wires overcame the clogging limitations of the iron-based autotrophic denitrification technology, and achieves resource recovery from waste membrane and iron materials. This approach reduces the cost of treating micro-polluted water and demonstrates promising development prospects.
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