Conversion of ammonium (NH4+) to green hydrogen using electroactive anammox bacteria

Project Description

The majority of reactive nitrogen present in wastewaters is in the form of ammonium (NH4+). NH4+ should be removed from wastewaters before releasing to the environment to safeguard human health and protect aquatic ecosystems. The current routes for NH4 + removal neglect the energy embedded in NH4+ and produce N2O, which is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with a 300-fold stronger greenhouse effect than CO2, and is one of the most dominant ozone-depleting gas. Considering these limitations, there is a need to develop alternative NH4+ management approaches that centre around recovering energy from NH4+ from wastewaters rather than dealing with its “destruction” into dinitrogen (N2). The proposed solution is to oxidize NH4+ using electroactive anaerobic ammonium oxidising (anammox) bacteria in a wind-powered microbial electrolysis cell and capture the energy released from NH4+ oxidation as hydrogen gas. The proposed project will improve this bioprocess to get higher NH4+oxidation and hydrogen production at application-relevant rates