Efficient implementation of anammox in an ultra-short hydraulic retention time anaerobic/oxic process for nutrient removal and resource recovery from sewage

Autotrophic nitrogen removal from municipal wastewater by anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has great potential for application in sustainable pollution control and resource recovery. This study presents an innovative anammox-based hybrid biofilm continuous flow process with an ultra-short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 h for the highly efficient nitrogen and phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater. Under the anaerobic/oxic operation, the system influent and effluent total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) were 79.3 mg/L and 6.7 mg/L, respectively (i.e., 72.6 mg/L TIN was removed at an HRT of 3 h).