Sustainable wastewater management through nitrogen-cycling microorganisms | Nature Water

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Nitrogen-cycling microorganisms play essential roles in biological wastewater treatment, where nitrogen is removed with substantial energy and chemical consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The discoveries of new nitrogen-cycling microorganisms paved the way for a remarkable paradigm shift from energy-negative and carbon-positive to energy-positive and carbon-neutral wastewater management. This Review reflects on the trajectory of these microbial discoveries and summarizes the technological progress enabled by them thus far. By bridging the gap between environmental microbiologists and water engineers, who are both interested in these new nitrogen-cycling microorganisms but with different focuses and expertise, this Review acknowledges the challenges encountered and illuminates the exciting future ahead. The continued close collaboration between scientists and engineers will keep redefining the landscape of wastewater management.

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This work is supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP220200963) and Discovery Project (DP230101340). T.L. is a recipient of the Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (DE220101310) and Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s Early Career Scheme (PolyU 25238324). H.D. and M.Z. are the recipients of the Australian Research Council Industry Fellowship (IE230100422, IE230100245). H.D. acknowledges funding from the Comammox Research Platform of the University of Vienna and the Austrian Science Fund, Cluster of Excellence COE7. S.L. acknowledges funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) grant 016.Vidi.189.050. Z.Y. is a Global STEM Professor jointly funded by the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau and Education Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and acknowledges financial support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the JC STEM Lab of Sustainable Urban Water Management.

Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

Tao Liu, Haoran Duan & Jianhua Guo

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Tao Liu

Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Haoran Duan & Min Zheng

Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Sebastian Lücker

Division of Microbial Ecology, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Holger Daims

The Comammox Research Platform, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Holger Daims

School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Zhiguo Yuan

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Correspondence to Jianhua Guo.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Nature Water thanks Dario Rangel Shaw and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Liu, T., Duan, H., Lücker, S. et al. Sustainable wastewater management through nitrogen-cycling microorganisms. Nat Water (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00307-5

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Received: 27 January 2023

Accepted: 06 August 2024

Published: 14 October 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00307-5

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