A low-temperature ammonia electrolyser for wastewater treatment and hydrogen production

Egle Latvyte; Ming Zhu; Liang Wu; Rong Lan; Pete Vale; John Graves

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.05.076

A low-temperature ammonia electrolyser for wastewater treatment and hydrogen production

Egle Latvyte, Ming Zhu, Liang Wu, Rong Lan, Pete Vale, John Graves

Severn Trent Plc

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Ammonia is a pollutant present in wastewater and is also a valuable, carbon-free hydrogen carrier. Stripping, recovery, and anodic oxidation of ammonia to produce hydrogen via electrolysis is gaining momentum as a technology, yet the development of an inexpensive, stable catalytic material is imperative to reduce cost. Here, we report on a new nickel-copper (NiCu) catalyst electrodeposited onto a high surface area nickel felt (NF) as an anode for ammonia electrolysis. Cyclic voltammetry demonstrated that the catalyst/substrate combination reached the highest current density (200 mA cm−2 at 20 °C) achieved for a non-noble metal catalyst. A NiCu/NF electrode was tested in an anion exchange membrane electrolyser for 50 h; it showed good stability and high Faradaic efficiency for ammonia oxidation (88%) and hydrogen production (99%). We demonstrate that this novel electrode catalyst/substrate material combination can oxidise ammonia in a scaled system, and hydrogen can be produced as a valuable by-product at industrial-level current densities and cell voltages lower than that for water electrolysis.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	265-282
Number of pages	18
Journal	International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume	52, Part D
Early online date	1 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.05.076
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funder

The Authors would like to thank the European Union and the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme for funding this research under the project REWAISE grant agreement No. 869496. The Authors thank the University of Warwick Seedcorn programme for the access to XPS equipment and data analysis. Authors E. L., L. W., and J. G. would like to thank Severn Trent Water for match-funding the PhD project.

Keywords

Hydrogen
Ammonia Electrolysis
Anode
Nickel-copper catalyst
Wastewater

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.05.076Licence: CC BY

PublishedFinal published version, 3.35 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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AU - Zhu, Ming

AU - Wu, Liang

AU - Lan, Rong

AU - Vale, Pete

AU - Graves, John

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AB - Ammonia is a pollutant present in wastewater and is also a valuable, carbon-free hydrogen carrier. Stripping, recovery, and anodic oxidation of ammonia to produce hydrogen via electrolysis is gaining momentum as a technology, yet the development of an inexpensive, stable catalytic material is imperative to reduce cost. Here, we report on a new nickel-copper (NiCu) catalyst electrodeposited onto a high surface area nickel felt (NF) as an anode for ammonia electrolysis. Cyclic voltammetry demonstrated that the catalyst/substrate combination reached the highest current density (200 mA cm−2 at 20 °C) achieved for a non-noble metal catalyst. A NiCu/NF electrode was tested in an anion exchange membrane electrolyser for 50 h; it showed good stability and high Faradaic efficiency for ammonia oxidation (88%) and hydrogen production (99%). We demonstrate that this novel electrode catalyst/substrate material combination can oxidise ammonia in a scaled system, and hydrogen can be produced as a valuable by-product at industrial-level current densities and cell voltages lower than that for water electrolysis.

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KW - Ammonia Electrolysis

KW - Anode

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KW - Wastewater

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JO - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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ER -

A low-temperature ammonia electrolyser for wastewater treatment and hydrogen production

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funder

Keywords

UN SDGs

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