An innovative adsorption/nitrification/denitrification/sludge-hydrolysis wastewater treatment process (ENRS) characterized by carbon source manipulation with a biological adsorption unit and a sludge hydrolysis unit was developed to enhance nitrogen removal and reduce sludge production for municipal wastewater treatment. The system presented good performance in pollutants removal, yielding the effluent with average COD, NH4+-N, TN and TP of 48.5, 0.6, 13.2 and 1.0 mg/L, respectively. Sixty percent of the total carbon source in the influent was concentrated and separated by the quick adsorption of activated sludge, providing the possibilities of reusing waste carbon source in the denitrification tank and accumulating nitrobacteria in the nitrification tank. Low temperature of 6-15 degrees C and high hydraulic loading rate of 3.0-15.0 m(3)/d did not affect NH4+-N removal performance, yielding the NH4+-N of lower 1.0 mg/L in the effluent. Furthermore, 50% of the residual sludge in the ENRS system could be transformed into soluble COD (SCOD) by alkaline thermal hydrolysis with temperature of 60 degrees C and pH of 11, and the hydrolyzed carbon could completely substitute methanol as a good quality carbon to support high efficient denitrification. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.