PhD Defence Janek Betting | Catalytic Nitrate and Nitrite Hydrogenation Across Scales | From Active Site Design to Pilot-Scale Demonstration

Catalytic Nitrate and Nitrite Hydrogenation Across Scales | From Active Site Design to Pilot-Scale Demonstration

Janek Betting is a PhD student in the department Chemical Engineering. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr.ir. L. Lefferts and prof.dr. J.A. Faria Albanese from the faculty of Science & Technology (TNW), University of Twente.

Nitrate and nitrite are environmentally harmful nitrogen species that can originate from excessive fertilizer use, intensive livestock farming, and the exhaust gases of combustion processes. Catalytic hydrogenation offers a promising route to convert these reactive nitrogen compounds into environmentally benign dinitrogen, thereby contributing to the mitigation of nitrogen emissions and supporting rebalancing of the global nitrogen cycle. Developing such a catalytic reaction into a viable process requires understanding across multiple length and time scales. This thesis therefore investigates nitrate and nitrite hydrogenation over Pd- and SnPd-based catalysts with respect to active site design, interfacial effects at the solid-liquid interface, product distribution under different reaction conditions, and the technological feasibility of an integrated NOx scrubbing-nitrate/nitrite hydrogenation process.