A co-research team of Professor Jang Youn-jeong (Department of Chemical Engineering) developed a catalyst technology that makes "green ammonia".
Ammonia, known as a raw material for fertilizer and as such, is now rapidly rising as a hydrogen storage carrier. It is because when hydrogen is transformed into ammonia, one can store 1.7 times more hydrogen than just liquifying it. Therefore, carbon dioxide emission during ammonia production was considered problematic since it takes 1.8% of global emissions.
The catalyst technology that Professor Jang Youn-jeong's co-research team developed used a principle of converting nitrate to ammonia by chemical reaction with electronic (photocatalyst) produced with sunlit photocatalyst. It utilized the characteristics of nitrate being easily dissolved in water and used a self-developed photocatalyst instead of electricity.
A research team of Professor Jang Youn-jeong explained, "Through research results, we were able to produce ammonia by reducing nitrate with high selectivity of 95.6% at a very low voltage using this catalyst."
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