NITRATE · Nitrate Imbalance-control by TRAnsformative Technologies that are Electrochemically-driven
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-09-01 → 2022-08-31
- EU contribution
- €257,620
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Nitrate Imbalance-control by TRAnsformative Technologies that are Electrochemically-driven
Water quality is one of the great challenges of this century. Nitrate concentrations in surface and ground waters have dramatically increased during the last century due to the anthropogenic nitrogen fertilizer inputs. Drinking water with elevated nitrate levels is harmful to human health in terms of respiratory and reproductive system illness, cancer, thyroid problems, and death. The World Health Organization has set a restrictive maximum concentration level in drinking water of 50 mg/L of nitrate. Unfortunately, nitrate is among the most reported water quality violations worldwide, impacting both municipal and private groundwater wells, the latter of which receives little attention has no mandatory treatments. Understanding that one of the main needs is point of use (POU) treatment within homes for people who rely on private groundwater wells or contaminated tap water, is a huge step. POU systems must be user-friendly, reliable, have small physical footprint, and not have waste production. For source waters being treated by large municipalities, units with small physical footprint are preferred for ease of implementation in existing facilities. This project proposes electrochemical processes, which operate at ambient conditions, do not require addition of chemicals, are compact, easy to handle, and cost-effective. Electrochemical reduction is an encouraging treatment technology to transform and reduce nitrate. Scientific and engineering challenges lie on uncovering alternatives to reduce the process cost. Therefore, this research aimed to (1) identify promising earth-abundant elements to electrocatalytically degrade nitrate in drinking water, (2) the design and construction of different electrochemical reactors for nitrate remediation is expected, (3) to reframe research questions in context of real water matrices to deal with new challenges, and (4) to scale-up the process and understand in deep nitrate removal mechanisms. The NITRATE project allowed to advance science, translating, and improving the technology readiness level related to the treatment of waters containing nitrate, and making it accessible to everyone.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Efficient management of nitrogen cycle imbalance is a critical need of this century. Water with elevated NO3- level is harmful to human and environmental health. Conventional treatment has limitations for point of use treatment and may generate sludge and/or brine solutions. Electrochemical processes are transformative chemical-free technologies that can reduce NO3- to innocuous N2 without sludge production. However, further research in efficient electrocatalysts and scale-up is required for technology implementation. In this project, research aims to overcome challenges of nitrate electrochemical remediation in three phases: (i) nano-electrocatalyst synthesis and benchmarking, (ii) reactor design/construction and evaluation in actual water matrices, (iii) study of alternative electrocatalyst materials.First, different electrodic materials will be evaluated in terms of kinetic reduction and selectivity towards N2. I hypothesize that application of nanoparticle binary and tertiary Pt/Pd alloys with other metals (Cu, Sn, In) will lead to higher N2 selectivity and enhanced electrochemical reduction because the preferential performance characteristics of different metals combined into one electrode material. Use of nanoparticles in tridimensional modified electrodes will improve mass transfer towards/from electrode surface increasing treatment performance as well as reduce catalyst mass requirement. Second, design and construction of different electrochemical reactors for nitrate remediation will catalyze the development of electrochemical technology towards implementation. Reactors will be assessed from the treatment of actual water matrices (brine, groundwater, tap and surface water) and techno-economic analysis. Last, catalysts based on cheaper metal oxide semiconductors will be explored as alternative electrocatalysts to reduce capital costs associated to material selection. Electrocatalytic properties will be benchmarked by scanning electrochemical microscopy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
- ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS · TempeUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union