A study was conducted regarding the biological nitrogen removal from the livestock and poultry breeding wastewater (LPBWs) using a novel sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR). Nitrogen removal process was studied under three aeration strategies/modes, referred to as MODE 1, 2, and 3. The results showed that MODE 2 (one operation period: instant fill of LPBWs, 3.0 h aeration, 1.5 h non-aeration, 1.5 h aeration, 1.0 h non-aeration and rapid drain of treated LPBWs) performed the best in nitrogen removal. Under MODE 2, the removal efficiencies were as high as 96.1 and 92.1% for NH3-N and TN, respectively. Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND), as well as shortcut nitrification and denitrification are likely to be the two main mechanisms for the nitrogen removal in this study. Nitrifying bateria were not inhibited by heterotrophic bacteria with C/N ratios ranging from 18.1 to 21.4 and DO concentration of 2.0 mg/l. Alternation between aeration and non-aeration played an important role in NO2−-N accumulation.

Anodization has been widely used to synthesize nanostructured TiO₂ films with promising photocatalytic performance for solar hydrogen production and pollution removal. However, it usually takes a few hours to obtain the right nanostructures even on a small scale (e.g., 10 mm × 20 mm). In order to attract interest for industrial applications, fast and large-scale fabrication is highly desirable. Herein, we demonstrate a fast and large-scale (e.g., 300 mm × 360 mm) synthesis of pine-cone TiO₂ nanostructures within two min. The formation mechanism of pine-cone TiO₂ is proposed. The pine-cone TiO₂ possesses a strong solar absorption, and exhibits high photocatalytic activities in photo-oxidizing organic pollutants in wastewater and producing hydrogen from water under natural sunlight. Thus, this study demonstrates a promising method for fabricating TiO₂ films towards practical photocatalytic applications.