BACKGROUND: Traditional aerobic autotrophic nitrification and anoxic heterotrophic denitrification have many limitations. Recently, the simultaneous heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) process has received increasing attention. Thus, the possibility of the simultaneous removal of bisphenols and NH4+-N via HN-AD was investigated. RESULTS: A bisphenols-degrading bacterial consortium was enriched and capable of degrading 50mgL(-1) bisphenol A, 300mgL(-1) 4,4-dihydroxybenzophenone, 375mgL(-1) bisphenol F (BPF) and 10mgL(-1) bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) sulfide under aerobic conditions. Further studies showed that the bacterial consortium could completely degrade 300mgL(-1) BPF and remove NH4+-N at 35 degrees C with 150 rpm at the C/N ratio of over 10. Moreover, BPF mineralization and NH4+-N reduction to N-2 were observed. Clone library analysis indicated that Salmonella enterica, Enterobacter, Citrobacter and Pseudomonas could cooperate to degrade BPF and reduce NH4+-N to N-2. Among these species, the isolated Pseudomonas sp. HS-2 was capable of simultaneous BPF degradation and NH4+-N removal via HN-AD. CONCLUSION: The experimental results demonstrated that the enriched bacterial consortium and the isolated strain HS-2 could simultaneously remove BPF and NH4+-N via HN-AD, indicating that this is a potential way for the treatment of wastewaters containing these compounds. (C) 2016 Society of Chemical Industry