Brocadia anammoxidans

"Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" is a bacterial member of the order Planctomycetes and therefore lacks peptidoglycan in its cell wall, has a compartmentalized cytoplasm.

"Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" is the first discovered organism capable of the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium. This process (dubbed the anammox-process) was discovered in the 1980s in a waste water treatment plant in Delft, the Netherlands. Ammonium oxidation is coupled to nitrite reduction to form the harmless dinitrogen gas.

The key enzyme involved in this reaction, hydroxylamine oxidoreductase, is located in an organelle-like structure called the anammoxosome. The ability to oxidize ammonium anaerobically makes "Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" potentially useful for reducing&mdash;or eliminating&mdash;ammonium from waste water.

Because of its ability to eliminate ammonium, a variety of uses have been found for this bacteria, removal of N from waste streams. The first full scale process employing the anammox process in the world was built at the waste water treatment plant Dokhaven/Sluisjesdijk in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.