Nitrate is the world’s most widespread contaminant and its removal from contaminated water is still challenging. This study tested the use of a catalyst-doped reactive electrochemical membrane (REM) for destructive nitrate reduction to nitrogen gas. Experiments were conducted with varying catalyst compositions, electrode potentials, flow rates, and flow directions to determine the optimal conditions for nitrate reduction. Results indicated that the deposition of a Pd-Cu catalyst to a Ti<sub>4</sub>O<sub>7</sub> porous REM increased the nitrate reduction kinetics by several orders of magnitude over the non-catalytic system. It was also observed that the placement of the cathode downstream of the direction of flow allowed for a synergistic electrocatalytic/catalytic reduction mechanism to proceed, which resulted in close to 100% Faradaic current efficiency with the production of only trace levels of nitrite and non-detectable ammonium concentrations. These results are contrary to most electrochemical reduction methods that result in high ammonium formation.

Combined catalytic/electrocatalytic nitrate reduction in a reactive electrochemical membrane

255th National Meeting (2018)

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