Progresses and challenges in sulfur autotrophic denitrification-enhanced Anammox for low carbon and efficient nitrogen removal

Abstract

Autotrophic nitrogen removal couple process based on anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) has been applied to treat various high-ammonia and low-carbon wastewater for its advantageous ability to remove nitrogen. However, high concentrations of ${\mathrm{NO}}_3^{-}$-N in the effluent is a drawback that prevents the total nitrogen from meeting the discharge standard. For this reason, coupling sulfur autotrophic denitrification (SADN) with Anammox for the advanced treatment of ${\mathrm{NO}}_3^{-}$-N to achieve a completely autotrophic biological nitrogen removal process that is independent of organic matter has become a major focus of research in recent years. To reduce ${\mathrm{SO}}_4^{\mathrm{2-}}$-S in the SADN process, the short-cut SADN (SSADN) process was pioneered for controlling ${\mathrm{NO}}_3^{-}$-N reduction in the ${\mathrm{NO}}_2^{-}$-N phase. This method also serves as an efficient anaerobic autotrophic process that simultaneously removes biological nitrogen from wastewater containing ${\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+}$-N and ${\mathrm{NO}}_3^{-}$-N. This article reviews the control parameters of SSADN and the forms of coupling with Anammox, analyze the directional transformation of nitrogen and sulfur in the coupling process and the complex competition of substrates, and finally evaluate application bottlenecks that limit its industrialization, which are necessary to address for furthering the development of this process.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Enhancement
• nitrogen removal efficiency
• NO₂⁻-N accumulation
• partial nitrification (PN)-Anammox
• sulfur autotrophic denitrification (SADN)

HANDLING EDITORS:

• John White and Lena Ma

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Suzhou Science and Technology Plan Project—Minsheng Project (No. SS202025), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51938010), the National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Municipal Sewage Resource Utilization Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology (No. 2019KF04), and the Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Science and Engineering (No. JSHJZDSYS-202004).