Ammonia is one of the world's most important chemicals, serving as a key feedstock for fertilisers and an emerging carbon-free energy carrier. However, almost all ammonia is currently produced through the Haber-Bosch process, which is highly energy intensive and relies on hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. As a result, conventional ammonia production is responsible for significant global carbon dioxide emissions.
Electrochemical ammonia synthesis offers a promising low-carbon alternative by operating under ambient conditions using renewable electricity. In particular, nitrate-containing wastewater represents an attractive feedstock, enabling the simultaneous removal of nitrate pollutants while converting them into valuable ammonia. This approach combines wastewater treatment with resource recovery, supporting the transition towards a circular and sustainable chemical industry.
One of the key challenges, however, is that many real wastewater streams contain nitrate at relatively low concentrations, which can limit the efficiency and productivity of electrochemical nitrate reduction. Capacitive deionisation (CDI) has recently emerged as a promising pre-concentration technology that can selectively capture and concentrate nitrate ions from dilute wastewater streams. By increasing the local nitrate concentration before electrochemical conversion, CDI has the potential to significantly improve ammonia production while enabling the treatment of realistic wastewater sources.
This project aims to investigate electrochemical ammonia synthesis from low-concentration nitrate-containing wastewater and understand how operating conditions influence nitrate conversion, ammonia selectivity, and overall process performance.
School
Chemical Engineering
Research Area
Electrocatalysis | Catalysis | Chemical engineering
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
This project will be conducted in the PartCat Laboratory at the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering. PartCat is internationally recognised for its research in heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemical energy conversion, hydrogen production, carbon capture, and sustainable chemical manufacturing. Students will be exposed to a multidisciplinary research environment that combines materials science, electrochemistry, catalysis, and environmental engineering.
- The student is expected to gain hands on experience in CDI and electrochemical performance measurements.
- The project will also allow the student to work with other research students to gain valuable interdisciplinary experience.
- The generated knowledge and data may result in a scientific journal publication.
- Continuation of the research as an Honours thesis project is possible.
- Pastushok, O., et al. (2019). Nitrate removal and recovery by capacitive deionization (CDI). Chem. Eng. J., 375, 121943.
- Theerthagiri, J., et al. (2022). Electrocatalytic conversion of nitrate waste into ammonia: a review. Environmental Chem. Letters, 20, 2929-2949