Changing Wastewater Treatment to Carbon Neutral: Recent Advances in Anammox-Based Autotrophic Nitrogen Removal

Dear Colleagues,

Anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) is a crucial step in the transition of wastewater treatment from an energy-consuming and chemical-intensive sector to carbon-neutral, even resource recovery facilities. The development of anammox technology significantly reduces the aeration energy consumption during nutrient removal, eliminates the need for external carbon sources, and concurrently decreases sludge production and greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, anammox technology has been applied to some municipal sidestream and nitrogen-laden wastewater treatments.

However, its application faces numerous challenges when dealing with mainstream wastewater and complex industrial and agricultural wastewater, due to its difficulties in enriching anammox bacteria, prolonged reactor start-up periods, and proliferation of coexisting nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB).

This Special Issue will focus on the practical application of anammox in wastewater treatment. We invite original research, review articles, and opinion pieces covering various related topics that elucidate challenges, advancements, and potential solutions for the application of anammox for wastewater treatment, including the following:

• Non-seed sludge start-up/rapid start-up of anammox-based reactors;
• Development/integration of novel processes for practical wastewater treatment;
• Novel control strategies for competitive coexisting bacteria;
• Sustainable development, life cycle assessment, and greenhouse gas emissions;
• Molecular biology and omic techniques;
• Pilot-scale/full-scale applications.

Dr. Yingyu Li
Prof. Dr. Maria Adelaide Araújo Almeida
Guest Editors

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