Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal
4 affiliations
- 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Contaminants Control Technologies and Intelligent Equipment in Water, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China
- 2CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, PR China
- 3Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Contaminants Control Technologies and Intelligent Equipment in Water, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China. [email protected]
- 4CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, PR China. [email protected]
Abstract
Urea is a pervasive nitrogenous pollutant that must be effectively eliminated from wastewater to prevent ecological damage, but existing treatment technologies remain inadequate. Here we show an integrated urea oxidation reaction-membrane distillation system that simultaneously achieves near-complete urea removal and resource recovery. The system employs a medium-entropy metal-organic framework (ME-MOF) electrocatalyst, which requires only 1.36 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to achieve 100 mA cm-2 for urea electrooxidation. And, it operates stably for 1,000 h at a total current of 1 A, enabling the removal of 99.7% urea from concentrated streams to meet the stringent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standard for fertilizer wastewater (<35 mg L-1 NH3-N). Operando characterizations reveal that entropy-stabilized multimetal sites enhance charge transfer and suppress Ni leaching. Furthermore, comprehensive life-cycle and techno-economic analyses demonstrate the system’s competitive environmental impact compared with conventional anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes, achieving economic viability with a net profit of $2.9 per m3 of effluent treated, in contrast to a loss of $0.63 per m3 for anammox treatment. Efficient removal of nitrogen-rich wastewater while recovering valuable chemicals remains a major challenge for sustainable water treatment. Here, the authors develop an integrated electrochemical membrane system that achieves near-complete urea removal and effective recovery of potassium hydroxide.
Related
- Integrated alkaline electrolyser-pressure retarded membrane distillation system for ammonia wastewater valorisation: technoeconomic and environmental assessment
- A Frequency-Aware Dynamic Knowledge Distillation Framework: An Effective Tool for Bridging Low- and High-Frequency Seismic Information
- Integrated Intensification and Nutrient Recovery Strategies in Two-Stage Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Sewage Sludge and the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste: State of the Art, Engineering Challenges of Scale-Up, and Perspectives
- Soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks and isotopic signatures under contrasting integrated crop-ivestock systems in sub-humid Zimbabwe
- Highly efficient long-range conduction through a biosynthetic nickel-organic framework
BibTeX
@article{zhang2026mediumentropy,
title = {{Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal}},
author = {Songlin Zhang and Hong Yao and Lei Shi and Xingju Zhang and Xin Bao and Xinshuo Shi and Yingjie Guo and Tingting Zhao and Shengbao Zhou and Kai Hui and Xinyang Li and Shenlong Zhao},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal
AU - Songlin Zhang
AU - Hong Yao
AU - Lei Shi
AU - Xingju Zhang
AU - Xin Bao
AU - Xinshuo Shi
AU - Yingjie Guo
AU - Tingting Zhao
AU - Shengbao Zhou
AU - Kai Hui
AU - Xinyang Li
AU - Shenlong Zhao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/14
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0
AB - Urea is a pervasive nitrogenous pollutant that must be effectively eliminated from wastewater to prevent ecological damage, but existing treatment technologies remain inadequate. Here we show an integrated urea oxidation reaction-membrane distillation system that simultaneously achieves near-complete urea removal and resource recovery. The system employs a medium-entropy metal-organic framework (ME-MOF) electrocatalyst, which requires only 1.36 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to achieve 100 mA cm-2 for urea electrooxidation. And, it operates stably for 1,000 h at a total current of 1 A, enabling the removal of 99.7% urea from concentrated streams to meet the stringent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standard for fertilizer wastewater (<35 mg L-1 NH3-N). Operando characterizations reveal that entropy-stabilized multimetal sites enhance charge transfer and suppress Ni leaching. Furthermore, comprehensive life-cycle and techno-economic analyses demonstrate the system’s competitive environmental impact compared with conventional anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes, achieving economic viability with a net profit of $2.9 per m3 of effluent treated, in contrast to a loss of $0.63 per m3 for anammox treatment. Efficient removal of nitrogen-rich wastewater while recovering valuable chemicals remains a major challenge for sustainable water treatment. Here, the authors develop an integrated electrochemical membrane system that achieves near-complete urea removal and effective recovery of potassium hydroxide.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -