A novel ‘anammox’ in the absence of anammox bacteria was confirmed to occur in an anaerobic sludge slurry system, in which Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycle driven by NO₂⁻-induced Fe(II) oxidation and subsequent NH₄⁺-induced Fe(III) reduction (Feammox) pushed the nitrogen removal. Results showed that Fe(II) contents significantly (p<0.05) decreased and Fe(III) accordingly increased with NO₂⁻ addition, indicating that Fe(II) was anaerobically oxidized to Fe(III). With depletion of NO₂⁻, the Fe(II) content began to increase which was a result of Feammox. Consequently, 96.0% NH₄⁺-N of the NO₂⁻-added reactor was removed during 18 days operation, while NH₄⁺-N content remained essentially unchanged in the control in which NO₂⁻ was not added. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that FeOOH was produced from chemical Fe(II) oxidation with NO₂⁻. During the treatment, anammox bacteria was not detected, but the relative abundance of Geobacter of the NO₂⁻-added group increased by 13 folds. Isotope experiment in ¹⁵NH₄⁺-containing reactors found that much more ³⁰N₂ and ²⁹N₂ in the ¹⁴NO₂⁻-added group were produced than those in the control (without ¹⁴NO₂⁻), confirming that ¹⁴NO₂⁻ induced Fe(II) oxidation to participate in Feammox for ¹⁵NH₄⁺ removal. Also, NO₂⁻ could be produced from partial denitrification of NO₃⁻, meaning that NO₃⁻ as a more common species might substitute NO₂⁻ to trigger this new anammox process.

在不存在厌氧氨氧化菌的一种新颖的“厌氧氨氧化”证实在厌氧污泥泥浆体系发生，其中的Fe（II）/铁（III）由循环驱动的NO ₂ ^-诱导的Fe（II）氧化和随后的NH ₄ ⁺诱导的Fe（III）还原（Feammox）推动了氮的去除。结果表明，铁（II）含量显著（p <0.05）降低和Fe（III）与NO相应地增加₂ ^-另外，指示的Fe（II）在无氧条件下被氧化成Fe（III）。与NO的耗竭₂ ^-的Fe（II）含量开始增加这是Feammox的结果。因此，96.0％的NH ₄ ⁺的NO的-N ₂ ^-18天操作期间被删除-增加反应器中，而NH ₄ ⁺ -N含量保持在没有所述控制基本上保持不变₂ ^-未添加。X射线衍射（XRD）和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）分析表明的FeOOH从化学生产的Fe（II）氧化，NO ₂ ^- 。在处理过程中，未检测到厌氧氨氧化菌，但的相对丰度地杆菌的NO的₂ ^- -增加了组增加了13倍。在¹⁵_个含NH ₄ ⁺的反应堆中进行的同位素实验发现，还有更多的³⁰ N ₂和²⁹Ñ ₂中¹⁴ NO ₂ ^- -增加了组比在对照产生的（无¹⁴ NO ₂ ^- ），证实¹⁴ NO ₂ ^-诱导的Fe（II）氧化参加Feammox为¹⁵ NH ₄ ⁺的去除。另外，NO ₂ ^-可以由NO的局部脱氮来生产₃ ^- ，这意味着NO ₃ ^-作为一个更常见的物种可以替代NO ₂ ^-触发此新厌氧氨氧化过程。