The chemical reduction of nitrate in aqueous solution

Abstract

The nitrate ion has high chemical stability, especially at low concentrations. Standard reduction potentials indicate that it should serve as an excellent oxidizing agent, but in order to react with suitable reducing agents to form elemental nitrogen or ammonia, special conditions, such as catalysts and high temperature and pressure, are required. A review of the literature on the chemical reduction of nitrate in aqueous systems has found about a hundred articles dealing with nitrate removal from such systems, with the majority having been published over the last decade. The reducing agents which have been examined to the greatest extent for acidic solution are formic acid, iron metal, methanol and the ammonium ion; while for basic solution aluminum, zinc and iron metals, iron(II), ammonia, hydrazine, glucose and hydrogen have been studied.