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Realizing the quick enrichment and development of denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms (DPAOs) in actual household wastewater and industrial nitrate wastewater has significant research significance. In this study, a novel operation mode of anaerobic-oxic-anoxic (AOA) was adopted to successfully realize the enrichment and cultivation of DPAOs in urban domestic wastewater. Adjusting influent COD to PO 4 3- -P was < 0.3 mg P/L, the removal efficiency of phosphorus was 96.9 % and the removal efficiency of nitrate was 92.5 %. Above all, DPR can be successfully applied to AOA systems with good phosphorus removal performance.4 3- -P was < 0.3 mg P/L, the removal efficiency of phosphorus was 96.9 % and the removal efficiency of nitrate was 92.5 %. Above all, DPR can be successfully applied to AOA systems with good phosphorus removal performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic (A/O/A) process, endogenous denitrification (ED) is critically important, and achieving steady endogenous partial denitrification (EdPD) is crucial to carbon saving and anammox application. In this study, EdPD was rapidly realized from conventional activated sludge by expelling phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) in anaerobic/anoxic (A/A) mode during 40 days, with nitrite transformation rate (NTR) surging to 82.8 % from 29.4 %. Competibacter was the prime EdPD-fulfilling bacterium, soaring to 28.9 % from 0.5 % in phase II. Afterwards, balance of high NTR and phosphorus removal efficiency (PRE) were attained by well regulating competition and cooperation between PAOs and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) in A/O/A mode, when the Competibacter (21.7 %) and Accumulibacter (7.3 %, mainly Acc&#95;IIC and Acc&#95;IIF) were in dominant position with balance. The PRE recovered to 88.6 % and NTR remained 67.7 %. Great balance of GAOs and PAOs contributed to advanced nitrogen removal by anammox., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Given the carbon limitation of municipal wastewater, the balance of biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal remains a challenging task. In this study, an anaerobic-anoxic-oxic combining with biological contact oxidation (A 2 /O-BCO) system treating real municipal wastewater was operated for 205 days, and COD-to-PO 4 -P ratio was confirmed as the key parameter for balancing denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (DPAOs) and denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms (DGAOs) to enhance N and P removal. When DPAOs dominated in nutrients removal, the increase in COD/P from 17.1 to 38.1 caused the deterioration in nitrogen removal performance decreasing to 71.8 %. As COD/P ratio decreased from 81.3 to 46.8, Ca.Competibacter proliferated from 3.11 % to 6.00 %, contributing to 58.9 % of nitrogen removal. The nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency reached up to 79.3 % and 95.2 %. Overall, establishing DGAOs-DPAOs balance by strengthening the effect of DGAOs could enhance the nutrients removal performance and accordingly improve the stability and efficiency of the system.3- -P ratio was confirmed as the key parameter for balancing denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (DPAOs) and denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms (DGAOs) to enhance N and P removal. When DPAOs dominated in nutrients removal, the increase in COD/P from 17.1 to 38.1 caused the deterioration in nitrogen removal performance decreasing to 71.8 %. As COD/P ratio decreased from 81.3 to 46.8, Ca.Competibacter proliferated from 3.11 % to 6.00 %, contributing to 58.9 % of nitrogen removal. The nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency reached up to 79.3 % and 95.2 %. Overall, establishing DGAOs-DPAOs balance by strengthening the effect of DGAOs could enhance the nutrients removal performance and accordingly improve the stability and efficiency of the system., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Starvation conditions were inevitably encountered by biological wastewater treatment systems. Four anaerobic starvation periods (5, 10, 16 and 20 days) were conducted to investigate the response mechanism of denitrifying phosphate-accumulating organisms (DPAOs) in order to dissect denitrifying phosphorus removal (DPR) decay processes. The denitrifying phosphorus removal performance suffered with the decay rate of 0.162 ± 0.022 d -1 during 20-day starved duration. Metabolic activity decay was responsible 93.20 ± 0.11% for the damaged DPR performance, while biomass decay contributed to 6.79 ± 0.68%. The genus Dechloromonas affiliated to DPAOs exerted stronger survival adaptability to starvation with the abundance increasing from 1.98% to 3.15%, depended upon the endogenous consumption of intracellular polymers. In view of PHA-driven DPR mechanism of DPAOs, the metabolic activity was restricted by the depletion of available PHA. These results revealed the poorer stability but preponderant recovery of DPR system encountering with starvation., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a novel laboratory-scale synchronous enhanced biological phosphorus removal and semi-nitritation (termed as EBPR-SN) combined with anammox process was put forward for achieving nutrient elimination from municipal wastewater at 27 ℃. This process consisted of two 10 L sequencing batch reactors (SBRs), i.e. EBPR-SN SBR followed by Anammox SBR. The EBPR-SN SBR was operated for 400 days with five periods and the Anammox SBR was operated starting on period IV. Eventually, for treating municipal wastewater containing low chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (COD/N) of 3.2 (mg/mg), the EBPR-SN plus Anammox system performed advanced total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) and P removal, with TIN and P removal efficiencies of 81.4% and 94.3%, respectively. Further analysis suggested that the contributions of simultaneous partial nitrification denitrification, denitrification, and anammox to TIN removal were 15.0%, 45.0%, and 40.0%, respectively. The enriched phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs) in the EBPR-SN SBR facilitated P removal. Besides, the EBPR-SN SBR achieved P removal and provided stable anammox substrates, suggesting a short sludge retention time (SRT 12 d) could achieve synergy between ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and PAOs. These results provided an alternative process for treating municipal wastewater with limited organics.

Denitrifying phosphorus removal sludge are usually faced with various famine environments in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Endogenous metabolisms under aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic starved conditions were characterized to investigate their impact on survival and activities of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs). DPAOs utilized intracellular polymers to survive and presented diverse consumed priorities of PHA types under various starvations. The biomass decay rate was approximately 2.7 and 1.7 times lower for aerobic condition than for anoxic and anaerobic conditions owing to the maximum maintenance energy requirement for aerobic condition (68.6 mmol/C-molVSS ATP). During short-term starvations, significant activity decay for anaerobic starved sludge was attributed to its distinctive endogenous metabolisms. For long-term starvations, the higher amounts and preponderant type of PHA (PHB) reserve favored to the greater DPAO activities for anoxic starved sludge. The results show that anoxic condition may be an implementable strategy for maintaining denitrifying phosphorus removal performance in WWTPs., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study developed a two-stage process, including simultaneous enhanced biological phosphorus-removal and semi-nitritation (EBPR-SN) sequencing batch reactor (SBR), followed by Anammox SBR, to achieve advanced nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) removal from real sewage with low carbon/nitrogen (2.82). The long-term operation suggested that removal efficiencies for TIN (86.2 ± 3.5%) and P (95.0 ± 5.5%) were stably obtained, with nitrite accumulation ratio of 98.7% in EBPR-SN SBR. Mechanism analysis indicated contribution of anammox to N-removal being 57.3%-73.7% and superior P-removal due to the majority of removed organics (~74.5%) being stored by polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs). In EBPR-SN SBR, high-throughput sequencing showed ammonium-oxidizing bacteria was 0.03% while nitrite-oxidizing bacteria was not detected, and PAOs accounted for 30.07%. In Anammox SBR, Candidatus Brocadia (9.75%) was the only anammox bacteria. Remarkably, short aerobic hydraulic retention time (4.29 h) with low DO (0.3-1.2 mg/L) during the whole process provided desirable energy-saving., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The novel partial nitrification endogenous denitrification and phosphorus removal (PNEDPR) process can achieve deep-level nutrient removal from low carbon/nitrogen municipal wastewater without extra carbons. However, its performance is limited by long hydraulic retention time (HRT) and low specific endogenous denitrification rate (r NO2 ). This study aimed at investigating the effects of two improving strategies on PNEDPR. One was decreasing both anaerobic and anoxic reaction time for shortening HRT from 55 h to 17.5 h. The other was temporarily discharging orthophosphate-rich supernatant for balancing the competition between phosphorus and glycogen accumulating organisms to further raise r NO2 without deterioration of phosphorus removal. Results revealed that, desirable nutrient removal was obtained, as average effluent concentrations of total nitrogen and orthophosphate were 8.4 and 0.5 mg/L with their average removal efficiencies of 86.8% and 90.9%. High-throughput sequencing analysis revealed that, Candidatus&#95;Competibacter conducted nitrogen removal endogenous denitrification and Candidatus&#95;Accumulibacter and Tetrasphaera ensured phosphorus removal., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, partial nitrification and post endogenous denitrification (PED) were combined with enhancing bacterial phosphorus removal (EBPR) in an anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic operated sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for deep-level nutrient removal from low carbon/nitrogen (C/N, chemical oxygen demand (COD)/total nitrogen (TN)) domestic wastewater. At anaerobic stage, abundant organic matters (96.6% of COD consumption) in raw wastewater were stored as poly-hydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by phosphorus and glycogen accumulating organisms with enhanced activities, which provided sufficient intracellular carbons for subsequent aerobic phosphorus uptake and anoxic PED. By controlling suitable aeration rate and duration, high nitrite accumulation rate (97.2%) was obtained at aerobic stage, which saved intracellular carbons consumption of PED. Moreover, the subsequent utilization of glycogen after PHAs via PED ensured the deep-level TN removal (94.9%) without external carbon addition. After 160-day operation, the average effluent PO 4 3- -P and TN concentrations were 0.4 and 3.0 mg/L, respectively, at C/N of 3.1., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Obtaining desirable partial nitritation (PN) is crucial for successful application of the combined PN and anammox process. In this study, the partial nitritation and simultaneously phosphorus removal (PNSPR) 1 granular sludge reactor treating low-strength domestic sewage was rapidly started up in 67days through seeding denitrifying phosphorus removal (DPR) 2 sludge. The nitrite/ammonium ratio in effluent was approximately 1 and the nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) was more than 95%, about 93% of orthophosphate was removed. The DPR sludge rich in phosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) with few nitrifying bacteria could promote the achievement of PNSPR. Quantitative microbial analysis showed that the ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) gene ratio in sludge increased from 0.21% to 3.43%, while nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) gradually decreased to 0.07%. The average particle size of sludge increased from 114 to 421μm, indicating the formation of PNSPR granules. The high phosphorus content in sludge and phosphorus removal facilitated rapid granulation., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

An anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic sequencing batch reactor (AOA-SBR) using sludge fermentation products as carbon source was developed to enhance nitrogen and phosphorus removal in municipal wastewater with low C/N ratio (<4) and reduce sludge production. The AOA-SBR achieved simultaneous partial nitrification and denitrification (SND), aerobic phosphorus uptake and anoxic denitrification through the real-time control and the addition of sludge fermentation products. The average removal efficiencies of total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (PO 4 3- -P) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) after 145-day operation were 88.8%, 99.3% and 81.2%, respectively. Nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) reached 99.1% and sludge reduction rate reached 44.1-52.1%. Specifically, 34.4% of the TN removal was carried out by SND and 57.5% by denitrification. Illumina MiSeq sequencing indicated that ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosomonas) were enriched and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrospira) did not exist in AOA-SBR. The system demonstrated potential to solve the dual problem of insufficient carbon source and sludge reduction., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The feasibility of achieving nitritation and phosphorus removal using bio-augmentation was investigated in a continuous-flow anaerobic/oxic (A/O) reactor treating sewage. The results indicated that nitritation could be quickly start-up, and reconstructed with an increase in the nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) from 1% to 89% within 15 days by using bio-augmentation and controlling DO at 0.96 mg/L. Biological phosphorus removal could be achieved with the average phosphorus removal efficiency of 96.43% when the NAR was maintained above 78.60%. Meanwhile, sludge settleablity was good with a sludge volume index (SVI) of between 62 and 102 mL/g even under high NAR. After nitritation and biological phosphorus removal were achieved, this A/O reactor has the potential to supply appropriate influent for the anammox UASB reactor., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

[Display omitted] • 30 m3 anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic pilot-scale SBR system was first set up with sewage. • Total nitrogen and phosphate in effluent were 10.9 and 0.1 mg/L at 15.7℃. • The relative abundance of Competibacter and Tetrasphaera rose to 1.25% and 1.52%. • The contribution rate by endogenous denitrification was more than 43.3%. • Sludge reduction (17.1 %) and short aerobic time (6.0 h) helped to save energy. Removing nitrogen and phosphorus from low ratio of chemical oxygen demand to total nitrogen and temperature municipal wastewater stays a challenge. In this study, a pilot-scale anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic sequencing batch reactor (A/O/A-SBR) system first treated 15 m3/d actual municipal wastewater at 8.1–26.4 °C for 224 days. At the temperature of 15.7 °C, total nitrogen in influent and effluent were 45.5 and 10.9 mg/L, and phosphorus in influent and effluent were 3.9 and 0.1 mg/L. 16 s RNA sequencing results showed the relative abundance of Competibacter and Tetrasphaera raised to 1.25 % and 1.52 %. The strategy of excessive, no and normal sludge discharge enriched and balanced the functional bacteria, achieving an endogenous denitrification ratio more than 43.3 %. Sludge reduction and short aerobic time were beneficial to energy saving contrast with a Beijing municipal wastewater treatment. This study has significant implications for the practical application of the AOA-SBR process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A pilot-scale plant of A2O-BCO was established and operated continuously for 385 days. • PDPRA was proposed and applied by leveraging DPAOs as NO 2 - suppliers for anammox. • PDPRA enabled a mainstream anammox activity as high as 6.14 μmol-N/(L·h). • PDPRA facilitated a high-level enrichment of AnAOB (Ca. Brocadia, 2.46 ± 0.52 %). • CRE, ARE, NRE, and PRE achieved up to 83.5 %, 99.8 %, 77.1 %, and 99.3 %, respectively. Applying anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) can unlock significant energy and resource savings. However, its practical implementation encounters significant challenges, particularly due to its limited compatibility with carbon and phosphorus removal processes. This study established a pilot-scale plant featuring a modified anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O) process and operated continuously for 385 days, treating municipal wastewater of 50 m3/d. For the first time, we propose a novel concept of partial denitrifying phosphorus removal coupling with anammox (PDPRA), leveraging denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (DPAOs) as NO 2 − suppliers for anammox. 15N stable isotope tracing revealed that the PDPRA enabled an anammox reaction rate of 6.14 ± 0.18 μmol-N/(L·h), contributing 57.4 % to total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal. Metagenomic sequencing and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing unveiled the co-existence and co-prosperity of anammox bacteria and DPAOs, with Candidatus Brocadia being highly enriched in the anoxic biofilms at a relative abundance of 2.46 ± 0.52 %. Finally, the PDPRA facilitated the synergistic conversion and removal of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus nutrients, achieving remarkable removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD, 83.5 ± 5.3 %), NH 4 + (99.8 ± 0.7 %), TIN (77.1 ± 3.6 %), and PO 4 3− (99.3 ± 1.6 %), even under challenging operational conditions such as low temperature of 11.7 °C. The PDPRA offers a promising solution for reconciling the mainstream anammox and the carbon and phosphorus removal, shedding fresh light on the paradigm shift of MWWTPs in the near future. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• PN was achieved with an NAR of 90.4 ± 5.4 % under normal DO conditions (1-2 mg/L). • Average TIN and PO 4 3−-P in effluent were 1.8 and 0.3 mg/L for low-carbon sewage. • DPR process using nitrite as the main electron acceptor saved energy notably. • Total nitrogen and phosphorus removal contributions by nDNPR were 23.6 % and 44.8 %. • The enrichment and balance of AOB, DGAOs and DPAOs ensured the effluent effect. Achieving economic and efficient removal of nutrients in mainstream wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) continues to be a challenging research topic. In this study, a continuous-flow anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic system with sludge double recirculation (AOA-SDR), which integrated partial nitrification (PN), endogenous denitrification (ED) and nitrite-type denitrifying phosphorus removal (nDNPR), was constructed to treat real carbon-limited municipal wastewater. The average effluent concentrations of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) and PO 4 3−-P during the stable operation period were 1.8 and 0.3 mg/L, respectively. PN was achieved with an average nitrite accumulation ratio of 90.4 % by combined strategies. Adequate storage of polyhydroxyalkanoates and glycogen in the anaerobic zone promoted the subsequent nitrogen removal capacity. In the anoxic zone, nitrite served as the main electron acceptor for the denitrifying phosphorus removal process. Mass balance analysis revealed that nDNPR contributed to 23.6 % of TIN removal and 44.7 % of PO 4 3−-P removal. The enrichment of Nitrosomonas (0.45 %) and Ellin 6067 (1.31 %), along with the washout of Nitrospira (0.15 %) provided the bacterial basis for the successful implementation of PN. Other dominant endogenous heterotrophic bacteria, such as Dechlormonas (10.81 %) and Candidatus Accumulibacter (2.96 %), ensured simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal performance. The successful validation of integrating PN, ED and nDNPR for advanced nutrient removal in the AOA-SDR process provides a transformative technology for WWTPs. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A novel DPR-PDA process was initiated with fully ordinary suspended sludge. • The deep removal of N and P without aeration was achieved under COD/TN of 1.8. • Candidatus_ Brocadia was enriched from 0.01% to 1.86% by prolonging anoxic stage. • The effluent TN and TP were 0.9 and 0.2 mg/L with influent of 106.0 and 1.4 mg/L. Partial Denitrification coupled with Anammox (PDA) process was used as for nitrogen removal from wastewater. However, the phosphate removal still relies on chemical methods in wastewater treatment plants. Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal (DPR) process allows phosphorus uptake under anoxic conditions using nitrate (NO 3 −) as electron acceptor. In this study, the PDA and DPR processes were successfully coupled into a novel integration (DPR-PDA) for co-treatment of simulated domestic wastewater and NO 3 − wastewater to achieve simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal. The effluent TN and TP were 0.9 and 0.2 mg/L during phase Ⅵ (day450-513) under influent COD/TN of 1.8, respectively. Anammox bacteria was self-enriched in this fully suspended sludge system, with abundances increasing from undetected at day19 to 2.0 × 1010 copies/g dry sludge at day468. Anammox bacteria was effectively retained and was responsible for the main nitrogen removal, accompanied by increasing activity up to 3.1 mg N/g VSS/h. Batch tests demonstrated that denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms exhibited DPR capacity immediately after the introduction of NO 3 −, but not after the introduction of nitrite (NO 2 −) only. Candidatus_Competibacter with endogenous denitrification ability was enriched from 13.30 % to 35.42 %, which coexisted with anammox bacteria stably. The novel DPR-PDA process is a promising technology for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus with low carbon demand and without aeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel post-endogenous denitrification and phosphorus removal (post-EDPR) system was developed by enriching denitrifying glycogen accumulating organisms (DGAOs) and phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) to treat low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) wastewater (C/N = 4.4). The unique feature of the post-EDPR system was the continuous alternating anaerobic/oxic/anoxic zone (3.1 h/3.9 h/7 h) with suspended biofilm carriers in oxic zone. The 132-day test results showed that extended anaerobic and anoxic stage strengthened the intracellular carbon storage and endogenous denitrification. Low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration (1–2 mg/L) in oxic zone promoted the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) and saved aeration energy, nitrifiers were enriched with the biofilm carriers and nitrification performance was strengthened, so oxic hydraulic retention time (HRT) could be shortened to avoid excessive polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) consumption which would be used for the latter anoxic denitrification. In a steady state, the system achieved advanced nitrogen and phosphorus removal (TIN (total inorganic nitrogen) ≤3 mg/L, PO 4 3−  − P ≤ 0.2 mg/L) with a high removal efficiency of 92.15% and 92.67%, respectively, and PHA played a major role for P-uptake and endogenous denitrification. Microbial community analysis demonstrated that PAOs and GAOs were enriched and performed aerobic P-uptake and anoxic endogenous denitrification, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • PDA process enhanced by Feammox and NDFO was studied for the first time. • Without external carbon source, NRE and PRE were 83% and 78.7%, respectively. • Candidatus Brocadia increased to 0.22% by multiple nitrite supply pathways. • The abundance of GAOs increased from 0.95% to 3.18% and the P-removal was improved. • Rapid start-up of PDA was achieved by treating ultra-low C/N ratio wastewater. The efficient removal of nitrogen and phosphorus remains challenging for traditional wastewater treatment. In this study, the feasibility for enhancing the partial-denitrification and anammox process by Fe (III) reduction coupled to anammox and nitrate-dependent Fe (II) oxidation was explored using municipal wastewater. The nitrogen removal efficiency increased from 75.5 % to 83.0 % by adding Fe (III). Batch tests showed that NH 4 +-N was first oxidized to N 2 or NO 2 –-N by Fe (III), then NO 3 –-N was reduced to NO 2 –-N and N 2 by Fe (II), and finally, NO 2 –-N was utilized by anammox. Furthermore, the performance of phosphorus removal improved by Fe addition and the removal efficiency increased to 78.7 %. High-throughput sequencing showed that the Fe-reducing bacteria Pseudomonas and Thiobacillus were successfully enriched. The abundance of anammox bacterial increased from 0.03 % to 0.22 % by multiple nitrite supply pathways. Fe addition presents a promising pathway for application in the anammox process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • In-situ biological phosphorus removal and recovery process greatly improved the abundance and activity of AOB. • Solved the contradiction of SRT between nitrogen and phosphorus removal. • NAR and PRR were stable above 90% in PNPR system. • Obtained more than 10 times influent PO 4 3--P supernatant with great recovery potential. • The average ratio of nitrite to ammonia nitrogen in the effluent was 1.96 with the treatment of real municipal wastewater. Achieving simultaneous semi-partial nitrification and deep phosphorus removal is a preferred process technology for Anammox pretreatment. In this study, semi-partial nitrification combined with in-situ phosphorus recovery (PNPR) was used to treat municipal wastewater. The SRT conflict between the nitrification and phosphorus removal was resolved by in-situ phosphorus recovery every 20 cycles of Anaerobic/Oxid, and a supernatant with more than 10 times the influent phosphorus concentration was obtained, thus achieving bio-enhanced phosphorus removal and recovery with satisfactory semi-partial-nitrification effluent. Interestingly, the results showed that phosphorus removal and recovery process could improve the activity of AOB. The PNPR system's nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) and phosphorus removal rate (PRR) were more than 90% each, whereas the relative abundance of AOB and PAOs increased from 0.04% to 0.74% and from 0.25% to 0.70%, respectively (P < 0.01). Furthermore, on average, the NO 2 –-N eff /NH 4 +-N eff value was 1.96, which laid the foundation for the subsequent anammox treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Salinity accelerated the formation of granule in a low dissolved oxygen process. • The extracellular polymeric substances played an essential role in the granulation. • Observed nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) increased to 98.9% under salinity stress. • Salinity favored glycogen-accumulating organisms, promoting N-removal potential. This study used salinity (0.5 wt%, 0.75 wt%) to accelerate the formation of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB)-enriched aerobic granular sludge in a lab-scale anaerobic/micro-aerobic simultaneous partial nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal (SPNDPR) reactor. Results confirmed that the average granule diameter increased from 298.7 to 425.4 µm after 45 days of salinity stress even with low dissolved oxygen. Extracellular polymeric substances increased from 149.5 to 387.7 mg/g VSS after salinity (0.75 wt%) treatment, in turn accelerating granulation. Partial nitrification was maintained under the salinity condition due to the relative high activity and abundance of AOB, and the observed nitrite accumulation ratio averaged 98.9%. Salinity favored glycogen-accumulating organisms over polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs)/denitrifying-PAOs, with the abundance of Candidatus_ Competibacter increasing from 4.86% to 15.34% and the simultaneous partial nitrification–denitrification efficiency increasing from 74.4% to 91.1%, promoting N-removal potential. The P-removal performance was good under 0.5 wt% salinity but was inhibited under 0.75 wt% salinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For achieving energy-efficient wastewater treatment, a novel simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal (SNPR) process, which integrated anammox, endogenous partial-denitrification and denitrifying dephosphatation in a sequencing batch reactor with granular sludge was developed to treat mainstream wastewater. After 200 days of operation, a simultaneous high-level nitrogen and phosphorus removal of 93.9% and 94.2%, respectively was achieved with an average influent C/N ratio of 2.9. Anammox pathway contributed 82.9% of the overall nitrogen removal because of the stable nitrite production from nitrate via endogenous partial-denitrification. In addition, phosphorus was mainly removed via denitrifying dephosphatation utilizing nitrate as the electron acceptor, resulting in a significant saving of carbon sources and oxygen demands. Further, adsorption/precipitation of phosphorus occurred in this novel SNPR process, which displaced the energy source to the metabolism of glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) for nitrite production and alleviated competition between phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) and anammox for electron acceptor. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing analysis, the study found that anammox bacteria (8.4%), GAOs (1.5%) and PAOs (1.1%) co-existed in this system, potentially resulting in simultaneous endogenous partial-denitrification, anammox and denitrifying dephosphatation. The above results demonstrated that the novel SNPR process is a promising technique for energy-efficient wastewater treatment. Image 1 • Anammox can co-exist with GAOs and PAOs, ensuring the effective SNPR performance. • High-level nitrogen and phosphorus removal (93.9% and 94.2%, respectively) was achieved. • Nitrogen removal via anammox accounted for 82.9%, reducing energy and carbon demands. • Adsorption/precipitation of P were involved and facilitated stable SNPR performance. • The novel SNPR process is promising in energy-efficient wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]