Rapidly achieving and optimizing simultaneous partial nitrification denitrification and anammox integrated process by hydroxylamine addition for advanced nitrogen removal from domestic wastewater

The achievement and stable maintenance of partial nitrification and partial anammox process for municipal sewage is a challenging research topic at present. In this study, a novel strategy of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) addition under low DO condition was adopted for rapidly achieving simultaneous partial nitrification denitrification and anammox process (SPNDA) to deal with domestic wastewater, the nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) increased from 1% to 82% in the first 4 days. After the addition of NH2OH was stopped, the PN effect of SPNDA process remained relatively stable within 100 days. During the stable operation period with aerobic HRT of 5 h, the nitrogen removal efficiency was 87.9 +/- 4.2%. Moreover, the abundance of denitrifying bacteria and Candidatus Brocadia increased from 1.79% and 0.062% to 22.49% and 0.38% respectively, which promoted nitrogen removal effect. Overall, this study provided a quickly way for achieving the cost-effective SPNDA process to enhance nitrogen removal with NH2OH addition.

Automated summary

The study successfully implemented a novel strategy of adding hydroxylamine under low DO conditions to achieve simultaneous partial nitrification denitrification and anammox process for municipal sewage, with a nitrogen removal efficiency of up to 87.9%.