Biological nitrogen removal is a two-step microbial process that converts harmful nitrogen compounds into harmless nitrogen gas. The two main microbial stages are Nitrification and Denitrification, and they have critically different oxygen requirements. Nitrification is the first stage, an aerobic process that converts ammonia (NH3) into nitrate (NO3-). This conversion occurs in two steps: first, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) convert ammonia to nitrite (NO2-), and then nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) convert nitrite to nitrate. Both AOB and NOB are obligate aerobes, meaning they are bacteria that absolutely require dissolved free oxygen to survive and metaboliz....
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