Anaerobic ammonium (NH₄⁺ - N) oxidation coupled with sulfate (SO₄²⁻) reduction (sulfammox) is a new pathway for the autotrophic removal of nitrogen and sulfur from wastewater. Sulfammox was achieved in a modified up-flow anaerobic bioreactor filled with granular activated carbon. After 70 days of operation, the NH₄⁺ - N removal efficiency almost reached 70%, with activated carbon adsorption and biological reaction accounting for 26% and 74%, respectively. Ammonium hydrosulfide (NH₄SH) was found in sulfammox by X-ray diffraction analysis for the first time, which confirmed that hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) was one of the sulfammox products. Microbial results indicated that NH₄⁺ - N oxidation and SO₄²⁻ reduction in sulfammox were carried out by Crenothrix and Desulfobacterota, respectively, in which activated carbon may operate as electron shuttle. In the ¹⁵NH₄⁺ labeled experiment, ³⁰N₂ were produced at a rate of 34.14 μmol/(g sludge·h) and no ³⁰N₂ was detected in the chemical control group, proving that sulfammox was present and could only be induced by microorganisms. The ¹⁵NO₃⁻ labeled group produced ³⁰N₂ at a rate of 88.77 μmol/(g sludge·h), demonstrating the presence of sulfur-driven autotrophic denitrification. In the adding ¹⁴NH₄⁺ and ¹⁵NO₃⁻ group, it was confirmed that NH₄⁺ - N was removed by the synergy of sulfammox, anammox and sulfur-driven autotrophic denitrification, where the main product of sulfammox was nitrite (NO₂⁻) and anammox was the main cause of nitrogen loss. The findings showed that SO₄²⁻ as a non-polluting species to environment may substitute NO₂⁻ to create a new “anammox” process.

厌氧氨（NH ₄ ⁺ - N）氧化与硫酸盐（SO ₄ ²⁻ ）还原（磺氨氧化）相结合是自养去除废水中氮和硫的新途径。磺胺氧化是在填充有颗粒活性炭的改进的上流式厌氧生物反应器中实现的。运行70天后，NH ₄ ⁺ - N去除率几乎达到70%，其中活性炭吸附和生物反应分别占26%和74%。通过X射线衍射分析首次在磺胺氧化中发现硫氢化铵(NH _{4 SH)，证实硫化氢(H 2} S)是磺胺氧化的产物之一。微生物结果表明 NH_{磺氨氧化中的4} ⁺ - N 氧化和 SO ₄ ^{2−还原分别由}Crenothrix和Desulfobacterota进行，其中活性炭可以作为电子穿梭。¹⁵ NH ₄ ⁺标记实验中，以34.14 μmol/(g污泥·h)的速率产生30 ^N 2 _{，而化学对照组中未检测到}³⁰ N ₂ ，证明磺胺氨存在且只能被诱导通过微生物。15 NO ₃ ^-标记组^产生30 N ₂速率为88.77 μmol/（g污泥·h），证明存在硫驱动的自养反硝化作用。在添加¹⁴ NH ₄ ⁺和¹⁵ NO ₃ ^-组中，证实NH ₄ ⁺ - N是通过磺胺氨氧化、厌氧氨氧化和硫驱动的自养反硝化作用的协同作用而被去除的，其中磺胺氨氧化的主要产物是亚硝酸盐（NO ₂ ⁻ ) 和厌氧氨氧化是氮损失的主要原因。研究结果表明，SO ₄ ²⁻作为一种对环境无污染的物质，可以替代 NO ₂ ⁻来创建新的“厌氧氨氧化”过程。