Ammonium and organic carbon co-removal under feammox-coupled-with-heterotrophy condition as an efficient approach for nitrogen treatment

Nitrification is the rate limiting step in the nitrogen removal processes since nitrifiers have high oxygen demand, but poorly compete with aerobic heterotrophs. In a laboratory-scaled system, we investigated a process of ammonium oxidation under ferric-iron reducing condition (feammox) in the presence of organic carbon using influents with high NH(4)(+) and COD contents, and ferrihydrite as the only electron acceptor. Batch incubations testing influents with different NH(4)(+) and COD concentrations revealed that the [COD]/[NH(4)(+)] ratio of 1.4 and the influent redox potential ranging from − 20 to + 20 mV led to the highest removal efficiencies, i.e. 98.3% for NH(4)(+) and 58.8% for COD. N(2) was detected as the only product of NH(4)(+) conversion, whereas NO(2)(−) and NO(3)(−) were not detected. While operating continuously with influent having a [COD]/[NH(4)(+)] ratio of 1.4, the system efficiently removed NH(4)(+) (> 91%) and COD (> 54%) within 6 day retention time. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses using Cy3-labeled 16S rRNA oligonucleotide probes revealed that gamma-proteobacteria dominated in the microbial community attaching to the matrix bed of the system. The iron-reduction dependent NH(4)(+) and COD co-removal with a thorough conversion of NH(4)(+) to N(2) demonstrated in this study would be a novel approach for nitrogen treatment.