Research

Groundwater pollution with nitrate-nitrogen has become a nationwide problem. We have developed a high-performance solid catalyst that promotes decomposition of nitrate-nitrogen in groundwater into nitrogen gas, and have also succeeded in purifying actual contaminated groundwater using a purification system incorporating the developed catalyst.
The treatment of water containing nitrate-nitrogen is predominantly a biological treatment that involves anaerobic and aerobic treatment. The equipment for that is generally large and its operation is complicated. The catalytic water purification system we have developed is very compact and does not require complicated operations, making it possible to purify contaminated water simply by passing hydrogen gas and contaminated water through a temperature-controlled reactor filled with catalyst.