ACH 4150 CHEMISTRY

By Dr. MBIRI

TOPIC: NITRIFICATION AND DENITRIFICATION

Introduction
Nitrogen enters the living world via free-living and symbiotic bacteria, which
incorporate nitrogen into their macromolecules through nitrogen fixation (conversion
of N2).
Disruption of the nitrogen cycle (Figure 1) can lead to accumulation of nitrogen in the
environment.

Until recent times, nitrogen fixation by microorganisms (with an additional small

amount from lightning strikes) was the only way in which nitrogen made its way from
the environment into living organisms.

Human production of additional nitrogen nutrients, however, has now disrupted the
natural nitrogen cycle,

1. With fertilizer accounting for more than half of the annual amount of nitrogen
fixation attributed to human activity.
2. Another large contribution comes from planting legumes, including soybeans
and alfalfa, which are attractive hosts for nitrogen-fixing microbes and therefore
enrich the soil where they grow.
3. A third contributor is nitrogen oxide formed during burning of fuels, where the
air becomes so hot that the nitrogen molecule breaks apart.

“Globally, until nitrogen fixation is balanced by denitrification, the amount of excess

fixed nitrogen in the world will grow relentlessly, with increasing consequences for
ecosystems and the public health,” writes Robert Socolow of Princeton University.
[Socolow, p. 6005]

During the Nitrogen cycle, nitrogen that enters living systems by nitrogen fixation is
successively converted from organic nitrogen back to nitrogen gas by bacteria

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This process occurs in three steps in terrestrial systems: ammonification,
nitrification, and denitrification.

Figure 1: A nitrogen cycle showing the various process involved

These processes are important especially in wastewater treatment especially from the
industries where nitrogen content is measure of the efficiency of the treatment.

One of the biggest problems challenging engineers in water treatment is the old water
treatment plants that lack processing of nitrogen

Bacterias remove nitrogen from wastewater by three step biological processes named
above ammonification, nitrification followed by denitrification.

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Ammonification
• While traveling through sewer pipes, most of the nitrogen contained in raw
sewage (urea and fecal material) is converted from organic - nitrogen to
ammonia through a process called hydrolysis by certain bacteria and fungi

Nitrification
• The biological conversion of ammonium to nitrate nitrogen is called Nitrification.

Nitrification is a two-step process.

• Bacteria known as Nitrosomonas convert ammonia and ammonium to nitrite.
• Next, bacteria called Nitrobacter finish the conversion of nitrite to nitrate.

• The reactions are generally coupled and proceed rapidly to the nitrate form;
therefore, nitrite levels at any given time are usually low.
• These bacteria known as “nitrifiers” are strict “aerobes,” meaning they must
have free dissolved oxygen to perform their work.
Some of the factors that affect the rate of nitrification include:
➢ Temperature, pH, moisture and air, alkalinity (presence of CaCO3)

Denitrification

• Is the reduction of NO3- to gaseous N2 by anaerobic bacteria (Pseudomonas

and Clostridium).

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• A carbon source (shown in the above equation as CH3OH) is required for
denitrification to occur.
• This process only occurs where there is little to no oxygen, such as deep in the
soil near the water table. Hence, areas such as wetlands provide a valuable
place for reducing excess nitrogen levels via denitrification processes.

• When the oxygen (O2 ) supply in soil becomes limited, a variety of bacteria use
the oxygen in nitrate for respiration. Denitrification most commonly occurs in
wet or waterlogged soils where the oxygen supply for respiration is restricted.
Some fungi can denitrify, but they are not considered significant.
• Denitrification is a benefit as a wastewater treatment component because it
converts the nitrate to a gas so it does not leach into the groundwater, etc.