ANAEROBIC OXIDATION OF METHANE AND DENITRIFICATION

摘要

Waste water and waste gas containing nitrogen compounds and organic matter can be effectively treated to produce molecular nitrogen and carbon dioxide by simultaneous anaerobic methane oxidation and anaerobic denitrification using a consortium of two micro-organisms: a denitrifying bacterium representing a phylum without any cultured species so far and an archaeon distantly related to marine methanotrophic archaea. In the new process, nitrogen-oxygen compounds, preferably obtained by aerobic nitrification of ammonia, in the essential absence of molecular oxygen, are fed into an denitrifying reactor containing the consortium of the anaerobic denitrifying bacterium and an anaerobic methanotrophic archaeon in a liquid medium together with methane.