Project Summary

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.

Project Objectives

• Investigate electrochemical nitrate reduction for ammonia production from low-concentration nitrate-containing wastewater.

• Examine the potential of capacitive deionisation (CDI) as a pre-concentration step for increasing nitrate concentration before electrochemical conversion.

• Evaluate the influence of key operating parameters, such as applied potential, nitrate concentration, and electrolyte composition, on nitrate conversion and ammonia selectivity.

• Assess the combined CDI-electrochemical approach as a sustainable strategy for wastewater treatment, nitrate recovery, and green ammonia production.

Project Tasks

• Conduct a literature review on electrochemical nitrate reduction, green ammonia synthesis, and nitrate concentration technologies.

• Prepare and assemble electrochemical and CDI cells for experimental testing.

• Perform CDI experiments to evaluate nitrate adsorption, concentration performance, and concentrating efficiency under different operating conditions.

• Perform electrochemical reduction experiments using simulated or real low-concentration nitrate-containing wastewater, with and without CDI pre-concentration.

• Quantify nitrate removal, nitrate concentration, and ammonia production using standard analytical techniques.

• Analyse experimental results and compare findings with published literature.

• Prepare a final technical report and present the project outcomes.

Research Environment and Supervision

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 project will be jointly supervised by Professor Rose Amal, Dr Michael Gunawan, and Dr Ming Zhang. Students will work closely with members of the PartCat research group and gain hands-on experience in CDI testing, electrochemical experimentation, analytical techniques, and scientific data interpretation. Throughout the project, students will participate in regular group meetings and discussions, gaining valuable exposure to collaborative research and contemporary challenges in sustainable chemical engineering.