Temperature impact on sludge yield, settleability and kinetics of three heterotrophic conversions corroborates the prospect of thermophilic biological nitrogen removal

[Display omitted] •Aerobic and anoxic carbon removal were fast in start-up at all temperatures.•Increasing temperature lowered aerobic sludge yield, mainly due to lower µmax.•High thermophilic denitritation/denitrification rates up to 3.3 g N g−1 VSS d−1.•Thermophilic denitritation as cost-saving alternative to denitrification.•Increasing temperature yielded ambiguous trends in aerobic and anoxic settling. In specific municipal and industrial cases, thermophilic wastewater treatment (>45 °C) might bring cost advantages over commonly applied mesophilic processes (10–35 °C). To develop such a novel process, one needs sound parameters on kinetics, sludge yield and sludge settleability of three heterotrophic conversions: aerobic carbon removal, denitritation and denitrification. These features were evaluated in acetate-fed sequencing batch reactors (30, 40, 50 and 60 °C). Higher temperatures were accompanied by lower sludge production and maximum specific removal rates, resulting mainly from lower maximum growth rates. Thermophilic denitritation was demonstrated for the first time, with lower sludge production (18–26%), higher nitrogen removal rates (24–92%) and lower carbon requirement (40%) compared to denitrification. Acceptable settling of thermophilic aerobic (60 °C) and anoxic biomass (50 and 60 °C) was obtained. Overall, this parameter set may catalyze the establishment of thermophilic nitrogen removal, once nitritation and nitratation are characterized. Furthermore, waters with low COD/N ratio might benefit from thermophilic nitritation/denitritation.