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N 2 O (Nitrous oxide, a booster oxidant in rockets) has attracted increasing interest as a means of enhancing energy production, and it can be produced by nitrate (NO 3 - ) reduction in NO 3 - -loading wastewater. However, conventional denitrification processes are often limited by the lack of bioavailable electron donors. In this study, we innovatively propose a self-photosensitized nonphototrophic Thiobacillus denitrificans (T. denitrificans-CdS) that is capable of NO 3 - reduction and N 2 O production driven by light. The system converted >72.1 ± 1.1% of the NO 3 - -N input to N 2 ON, and the ratio of N 2 O-N in gaseous products was >96.4 ± 0.4%. The relative transcript abundance of the genes encoding the denitrifying proteins in T. denitrificans-CdS after irradiation was significantly upregulated. The photoexcited electrons acted as the dominant electron sources for NO 3 - reduction by T. denitrificans-CdS. This study provides the first proof of concept for sustainable and low-cost autotrophic denitrification to generate N 2 O driven by light. The findings also have strong implications for sustainable environmental management because the sunlight-triggered denitrification reaction driven by nonphototrophic microorganisms may widely occur in nature, particularly in a semiconductive mineral-enriched aqueous environment., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)