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Review
. 2024 Dec 21;28(1):111687.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111687. eCollection 2025 Jan 17.

Progress and perspectives in the electroreduction of low-concentration nitrate for wastewater management

Kouer Zhang  1 , Xiaohong Zou  1 , Yun Liu  1 , Xiao Zhang  1   2 , Liang An  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Progress and perspectives in the electroreduction of low-concentration nitrate for wastewater management

Kouer Zhang et al. iScience. .

Abstract

The electroreduction of nitrate has emerged as a promising global strategy for water purification in the face of harmful nitrate in wastewater. However, the usually low concentration of nitrate in wastewater poses a great challenge to this process, thus necessitating more in-depth studies to optimize its efficiency. This perspective article briefly explores the various electrochemical pathways of nitrate reduction, including the conversion of nitrate to ammonia, the conversion of nitrate to dinitrogen, and the C-N coupled reduction process. In addition, the feasibility of the electroreduction method is assessed from the concentration nitrate sources, reactor design, and promising energy sources, while also offering insights into prospective developments for further research.

Keywords: Chemical engineering; Chemistry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Publications development trend of nitrate reduction (A) Publications of nitrate reduction from the three aspects since 2000. (B) The ratio of publication numbers with keywords “electrochemical nitrate reduction at low concentration” to “electrochemical nitrate reduction” since 2005. The data are originated from the Web of Science database searched on June 25th, 2024.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The schematic of the mechanism of electrochemical NO3RR toward dinitrogen and ammonia
Figure 3
Figure 3
Reported NO3RR performance (A) The schematic illustration and the working principle for the flow reactor. (B) FE and ammonia yield rate at high current densities (1.0 M KOH +2000 ppm NO3−). Copyright 2024, Wiley-VCH GmbH. (C) Charge density difference of NC, Cu(I)-N3C1, and Cu(II)-N4. (D) Nitrate conversion and nitrogen species product selectivity of different cathode potentials. (E) Ammonia yield rate and FE under different initial concentrations. Copyright 2022, American Chemical Society. (F) The evolution of NO3−-N conversion and products selectivity on different electrodes. (G) The free energies of reaction pathways by theoretical calculation for different intermediates over the CNTs@mesoC@Cu, CNTs@mesoC@Pd, and CNTs@mesoC@CuPd. Copyright 2022, Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The schematic of the mechanism of electrochemical C-N coupling toward different end products Copyright 2024, Elsevier.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Reported practical application of NO3RR The schematic illustration of (A) H-cell reactor and (B) flow-through electrofiltration reactor. Copyright 2023, the authors. (C) Bipolar membrane reactor for ammonia electrosynthesis in flow mode. Copyright 2023, Springer Nature. (D) Scaling-up flow-by prototype reactor. Copyright 2021, American Chemical Society.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Radar map of the evaluation indexes for low concentration nitrate conversion strategies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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