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Enhancement role of corncob slow-release carbon source on heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification process in low C/N wastewater treatment

Xin-Yu Gu et al.

Journal of Environmental Management2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128511article
AJG 3
Weight
0.41

What the paper says

Heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) represents an innovative biological process that combines heterotrophic nitrification (HN) and aerobic denitrification (AD) to simultaneously remove nitrogen and organic matter under aerobic conditions. However, its obligate heterotrophic nature imposes substantial carbon source requirements, limiting its functional efficacy under low carbon-nitrogen ratio (C/N) conditions. To address this inhibitory effect on heterotrophic bacterial competitiveness for nitrogen metabolism substrates, this study introduced corncob slow-release carbon source (CSC) and established a comparative reactor system to investigate its influence on nitrogen removal pathways and the functional microbiota involved in HN and AD under low C/N conditions. The hydrolytic bacteria in the system improved CSC's carbon release, and the highly bioavailable carbon sources significantly reduced intermediate accumulation while elevating total inorganic nitrogen removal efficiency from 26.34 ± 5.73 % to 77.32 ± 3.31 %. Quantitative analysis revealed substantial upregulation of key HN-AD functional genes, with haoA, haoC, and napA expression levels increasing by 1.01-, 2.97-, and 13.64- fold, respectively. Correspondingly, CSC addition enhanced activity by 1.73-fold in HN and 0.55-fold in AD, while increasing the relative abundance of microorganisms with HN and AD functions by 1.70-fold. The enhancement of HN and AD metabolic activity induced by CSC under low C/N conditions could be driven by the upregulation of the electron transport system, which provided a competitive advantage in nitrogen removal. This study elucidated the mechanistic basis of CSC-mediated carbon supplementation in enhancing HN and AD under low C/N conditions, offering novel insights for advancing efficient nitrogen removal technologies in carbon-limited wastewater treatment systems.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128511

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{xin-yu2026,
  title        = {{Enhancement role of corncob slow-release carbon source on heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification process in low C/N wastewater treatment}},
  author       = {Xin-Yu Gu et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Environmental Management},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128511},
}

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.