A paper jointly researched by Professor Seung-Yeop Lee's lab with a research team from the Department of Chemistry was published as the cover paper on June 15, 2026, in Green Chemistry (IF 10.6), a renowned journal in the green energy field.

In this paper, Dr. Seo Han-bok from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Hee-sun Park from the Department of Chemistry participated as co-first authors, and Professor Seung-yeop Lee and Professor Heo Nam-hoe from the Department of Chemistry participated as co-corresponding authors. This is a groundbreaking study that uses high-concentration hydrogen nanobubble technology from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and ruthenium catalyst technology from the Department of Chemistry to generate ammonia, which is in the spotlight as a hydrogen carrier, from waste nitric acid at low temperature and low pressure.

Ammonia production is still carried out under high temperature (400-500°C) and high pressure (above 200 atm) conditions using the Haber-Bosch method. However, this study is a source research result showing that ammonia can be produced from waste nitric acid under low temperature (60°C) and low pressure (below 10 atm) conditions using nanobubbles and catalysts. It is expected to have a significant ripple effect in the era of hydrogen conversion through future commercialization research. This study was conducted with support from the Pioneer Challenge Project, a research foundation.

▶ Title: Ultrasound-assisted catalytic valorization of nitric acid waste to ammonia using hydrogen nanobubbles
▶ Authors: Hee-seon Park, Han-bok Seo, Heung-bin Lim, Seung-yeop Lee, Nam-hoe Heo
▶ Paper link:https://doi.org/10.1039/d6gc00304d