Integrated alkaline electrolyser-pressure retarded membrane distillation system for ammonia wastewater valorisation: technoeconomic and environmental assessment
- 1School of Chemical Engineering, Chonnam National University
- 2Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University
Abstract
Ammonia is a major wastewater pollutant causing eutrophication, and reliable removal across broad concentration ranges is increasingly required. However, conventional treatment processes are limited in operational stability, applicable concentration range and energy efficiency, while integrated approaches enabling simultaneous ammonia removal and resource recovery remain limited. This study proposes an integrated alkaline electrolyser (AEL) and waste-heat-driven pressure-retarded membrane distillation (PRMD), directly coupling ammonia electrolysis-based removal with hydrogen production, freshwater generation and energy recovery. A mathematical model incorporating mass and energy balances and pressure drop equations was developed alongside technoeconomic and environmental assessments over influent ammonia concentrations of 5–1000 ppm, a range broader than that typically considered for conventional ammonia treatment. The integrated AEL-PRMD system achieves stable ammonia removal while producing 99.9% pure hydrogen up to 1.22 × × 10−3 mol/s and 9.84 × × 10−6 m3/s of freshwater. As ammonia concentration increases, the levelised cost of water rises from 5.5 to 12.4 $/m³, remaining comparable to thermal desalination, whereas environmental cost intensity decreases to 1.65 $/kg CO2-eq at 1000 ppm. These results demonstrate stable ammonia removal and resource recovery across a wide concentration range. Overall, the integrated configuration redirects wastewater treatment energy into valuable co-products, providing a flexible and energy-efficient platform for ammonia wastewater valorisation.
Related
- Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal
- An Artificial Intelligence Integrated Geospatial Decision-Support Framework for Scenario-Based Climate-Adaptive Land-Use Optimization and Environmental Risk Reduction
- The integrated environmental zoning-based regulation further enhances sustainable development in China
- Integrated Process Environmental and Economic Modeling of Electrically Assisted Forward Osmosis Microbial Desalination for Water and Struvite Recovery
- Integrated environmental assessment of plastic pollution in the São Francisco River estuary, Brazil.
BibTeX
@article{oh2026integrated,
title = {{Integrated alkaline electrolyser-pressure retarded membrane distillation system for ammonia wastewater valorisation: technoeconomic and environmental assessment}},
author = {Sunyoung Oh and Heun Se Kim and Kiho Park and Boram Gu},
journal = {npj Clean Water},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1038/s41545-026-00599-y},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-026-00599-y},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Integrated alkaline electrolyser-pressure retarded membrane distillation system for ammonia wastewater valorisation: technoeconomic and environmental assessment
AU - Sunyoung Oh
AU - Heun Se Kim
AU - Kiho Park
AU - Boram Gu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/01
JO - npj Clean Water
DO - 10.1038/s41545-026-00599-y
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-026-00599-y
AB - Ammonia is a major wastewater pollutant causing eutrophication, and reliable removal across broad concentration ranges is increasingly required. However, conventional treatment processes are limited in operational stability, applicable concentration range and energy efficiency, while integrated approaches enabling simultaneous ammonia removal and resource recovery remain limited. This study proposes an integrated alkaline electrolyser (AEL) and waste-heat-driven pressure-retarded membrane distillation (PRMD), directly coupling ammonia electrolysis-based removal with hydrogen production, freshwater generation and energy recovery. A mathematical model incorporating mass and energy balances and pressure drop equations was developed alongside technoeconomic and environmental assessments over influent ammonia concentrations of 5–1000 ppm, a range broader than that typically considered for conventional ammonia treatment. The integrated AEL-PRMD system achieves stable ammonia removal while producing 99.9% pure hydrogen up to 1.22 × × 10−3 mol/s and 9.84 × × 10−6 m3/s of freshwater. As ammonia concentration increases, the levelised cost of water rises from 5.5 to 12.4 $/m³, remaining comparable to thermal desalination, whereas environmental cost intensity decreases to 1.65 $/kg CO2-eq at 1000 ppm. These results demonstrate stable ammonia removal and resource recovery across a wide concentration range. Overall, the integrated configuration redirects wastewater treatment energy into valuable co-products, providing a flexible and energy-efficient platform for ammonia wastewater valorisation.
SN - 2059-7037
ER -