Evaluating the potential for dissimilatory nitrate reduction by anammox bacteria for municipal wastewater treatment

Anammox bacteria can perform dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) with nitrite as intermediate coupled to the oxidation of volatile fatty acids (VFA). Batch tests with enriched anammox and a co-culture of anammox and heterotrophic bacteria showed the capacity of Candidatus ‘Brocadia fulgida’ to perform the DNRA coupled to the anammox reaction (DNRA-anammox) at a high rate although the culture was not previously adapted to VFA. From thermodynamic calculations it could be stated that low COD/N influent ratios favour the DNRA-anammox transformation over heterotrophic conversions since more free energy is gained. A process scheme is proposed for an innovative nitrogen removal system in which the nitrate produced by nitrite oxidizing bacteria and/or anammox bacteria is converted during DNRA-anammox pathway, resulting in a sustainable nitrogen removal from municipal wastewater while circumventing the troublesome out-selection of nitrite oxidizing bacteria encountered in mainstream applications.