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Ammonia is one of the world's most produced compounds and is widely used in fertilizers, chemical synthesis and energy storage. The global demand for ammonia reaches 180 million tons per year. Due to the high temperature and high pressure used in the production process and the large amount of hydrogen used as a raw material, ammonia production contributes 1.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions and consumes 2% of global energy each year. At the same time, nitrate loss in agricultural and industrial production processes may pollute water resources.

How to solve the problem of high energy consumption and non-greenness in ammonia production? The latest issue of Nature Catalysis reports a new electrochemical method for ammonia production, which can convert nitrate-containing wastewater into ammonia and purify water, killing two birds with one stone.

Ammonia production currently relies mainly on the Haber-Bosch process, where the ammonia solution must be mixed with a supporting electrolyte (salt) to a very high concentration and then separated to obtain the ammonia product. Professor Wang Haotian's team from Rice University in the United States designed a three-chamber electrochemical device that can convert wastewater into ammonia and purify water. The wastewater is added to the device and flows through a porous solid electrolyte layer, converting the nitrate solution into water and ammonia. Nitrate pollutants are removed from the water and ammonia is produced at the same time without the need for further purification steps.

The process is efficient and produces purified water and ammonia gas at nitrate concentrations common in industrial wastewater (2,000 parts per million, ppm) without the need for additional supporting electrolytes.

The research team also conducted a technical and economic assessment (TEA) of this technology, and the results showed that although the cost of electrochemical ammonia synthesis is still higher than the traditional Haber-Bosch process, this technology shows a clear competitive advantage when the potential profit of nitrate wastewater treatment is taken into account. "Our technology provides new possibilities for the green synthesis of ammonia and helps to achieve a balance in the global nitrogen cycle," Professor Wang Haotian emphasized.

The research team believes that the current innovative ammonia production device can achieve a more environmentally friendly way of producing ammonia and help with wastewater treatment. They also mentioned that these experiments are based on laboratory settings, and future research needs to evaluate the applicability of these devices in real-world environments.