Recently, the establishment of a hydrogen-based economy and the utilization of low-carbon energy sources, particularly for shipping and power generation, have been in high demand in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In particular, ammonia is gaining renewed attention because it is capable of serving as a key facilitator for high-efficiency green hydrogen storage and transportation and it is also capable of serving as a low-carbon energy source. Although ammonia can be synthesized through the Haber-Bosch process, the high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with this process result in minimal carbon reduction. To address the critical drawbacks of the traditional Haber-Bosch process, various thermochemical synthesis methods have been developed recently, allowing for the synthesis of ammonia with lower carbon emissions and a higher energy efficiency. Research is also progressing in the development of high-performance catalyst materials that are capable of demonstrating sufficient ammonia synthesis performance under milder process conditions compared to conventional methods. Additionally, a variety of different processes such as chemical-looping ammonia synthesis, plasma synthesis, and mechanochemical synthesis are being applied diversely. This review aims to provide a detailed overview of the emerging ammonia synthesis technologies that have been developed to effectively store green hydrogen for future applications.

Remanufacturing re-commercializes a used product to achieve an equal or higher performance level than the original product by disassembling, cleaning, inspecting, repairing, reconditioning, and reassembling the used product. The remanufacturing industry is a key industry necessary to realize carbon neutrality by 2050. This study uses life cycle assessment to analyze the resource reduction and greenhouse gas reduction effects with and without considering the avoided effect for an injector, which is an automobile part that is actively being remanufactured. The results of this study showed that the resource reduction effect and greenhouse gas reduction effect induced by injector remanufacturing were reduced by 95.30% and 93.88%, respectively, based on one unit without considering the avoided effect. However, when considering the avoided effect, which in this case is the environmental impact of not disposing of the used injector and not having to use natural resources to manufacture a new injector because the used injector was reused during remanufacturing, the resource reduction effect and greenhouse gas reduction effect were 190.91% and 188.33%, respectively. The results of this study are expected to be used in the future to evaluate the amount of environmental impact reduction while considering the avoided effect during remanufacturing and to help develop research methodology for remanufacturing.

Globally, the demand for electric vehicles has surged due to greenhouse gas regulations related to climate change, leading to an increase in the production of used batteries as a consequence of the battery life issue. This study aims to selectively leach and recover valuable metal lithium from the cathode material of spent LFP (LiFePO4) batteries among lithium-ion batteries. Generally, the use of inorganic acids results in the emission of toxic gases or the generation of large quantities of wastewater, causing environmental issues. To address this, research is being conducted to leach lithium using organic acids and other leaching agents. In this study, selective leaching was performed using the organic acid methane sulfonic acid (MSA, CH3SO3H). Experiments were conducted to determine the optimal conditions for selectively leaching lithium by varying the MSA concentration, pulp density, and hydrogen peroxide dosage. The results of this study showed that lithium was leached at approximately 100%, while iron and phosphorus components were leached at about 1%, verifying the leaching efficiency and the leaching rates of the main components under different variables.

In order to better understand carbon dioxide recycling, the carbon dioxide capture characteristics of six different alkaline industrial by-products, including incineration ash, desulfurized gypsum, low-grade quicklime, and steelmaking slag were investigated using a laboratory-scale direct aqueous carbonation reactor. In addition to the dissolution characteristics of each sample, the main reaction structure was confirmed through thermogravimetric analysis before and after the reaction, and the reactive CaO content was also defined through thermogravimetric analysis. The carbon dioxide capture capacity and efficiency of quicklime were determined to be 473 g/kg and 86.9%, respectively, and desulfurized gypsum and incineration ash were also evaluated to be relatively high at 51.1 to 131.7 g/kg and 51.2 to 87.7%, respectively. On the other hand, the capture efficiency of steelmaking slag was found to be less than 10% due to the influence of the production and post-cooling conditions. Therefore, in order to apply the carbonation process to steelmaking slag, it is necessary to optimize the slag production conditions. Through this study, it was confirmed that the carbon dioxide capture characteristics of incineration ash, quicklime, and desulfurized gypsum are at levels suitable for carbonation processes. Furthermore, this study was able to secure basic data for resource development technology that utilize carbon dioxide conversion to produce calcium carbonate for construction materials.

Zeolite template carbon (ZTC) was synthesized as an adsorbent to remove low-concentration CH4 from the atmosphere. The synthesis of ZTC was performed using CH4 and C2H2 as carbon precursors and their impact on adsorption was investigated. ZTC was also synthesized using Y zeolite ion-exchanged with CaCl2 and LiCl as templates to investigate the effect of using metals in ion exchange. The comparison of the carbon precursors revealed that C2H2 had a higher carbon yield than CH4. The synthesized ZTC exhibited developed micropores due to carbon deposition deep inside the micropores of the zeolite template. The kinetic diameter of C2H2 (0.33 nm) is smaller than that of CH4 (0.38 nm), which allowed for its deposition. The study compared metal precursors used for ion exchange and confirmed that the CaCl2-based ZTC developed more micropores compared to the LiCl-based ZTC. The ion-exchanged Ca inhibited pore blocking by the carbon precursor, allowing it to enter the pores. The ability of synthesized ZTC to adsorb N2 and CH4 at 298 K was investigated. The results showed that CH4 had a higher overall adsorption amount than N2. The sample synthesized using C2H2 and CaY exhibited the highest N2 and CH4 adsorption capacity. However, the sample synthesized with CH4 had the highest CH4/N2 gas uptake ratio, which is a crucial factor in designing an adsorption process. The observed difference was likely caused by the underdevelopment of ultrafine pores that are associated with N2 adsorption. This resulted in a reduction of N2 adsorption, leading to an increase in CH4/N2 separation.

In this study, the mechanical stability of red mud was improved for its commercial use as a catalyst to effectively decompose HFC-134a, one of the seven major greenhouse gases. Red mud is an industrial waste discharged from aluminum production, but it can be used for the decomposition of HFC-134a. Red mud can be manufactured into a catalyst via the crushing- preparative-compression molding-firing process, and it is possible to improve the catalyst performance and secure mechanical stability through calcination. In order to determine the optimal heat treatment conditions, pellet-shaped compressed red mud samples were calcined at 300, 600, 800 oC using a muffle furnace for 5 hours. The mechanical stability was confirmed by the weight loss rate before and after ultra-sonication after the catalyst was immersed in distilled water. The catalyst calcined at 800 oC (RM 800) was found to have the best mechanical stability as well as the most catalytic activity. The catalyst performance and durability tests that were performed for 100 hours using the RM 800 catalyst showed that more than 99% of 1 mol% HFC-134a was degraded at 650 oC, and no degradation in catalytic activity was observed. XRD analysis showed tri-calcium aluminate and gehlenite crystalline phases, which enhance mechanical strength and catalytic activity due to the interaction of Ca, Si, and Al after heat treatment at 800 oC. SEM/ EDS analysis of the durability tested catalysts showed no losses in active substances or shape changes due to HFC-134a abasement. Through this research, it is expected that red mud can be commercialized as a catalyst for waste refrigerant treatment due to its high economic feasibility, high decomposition efficiency and mechanical stability.

Carbon has a large specific area and excellent chemical stability, so research on its use as a catalyst support is actively conducted. When using carbon as a support, the pretreatment process is essential. Through pretreatment of carbon, the growth of metal nanoparticles can be controlled and the bonding strength between the support and metal particles can be improved. In this study, carbon was pretreated for surface modification and 5 wt% Pd/C catalysts were synthesized using it as a support. Catalytic activity was evaluated through phenol hydrogenation. To compare with nitric acid, which is commonly used in carbon pretreatment, carbon pretreatment was performed using organic acid. Pd/C treated with gluconic acid showed the highest activity, with 94.93% phenol conversion and 92.76% cyclohexanone selectivity. Therefore, it is expected that pretreatment of the carbon support using organic acid will not only overcome the disadvantages of inorganic acid treatment but also improve catalyst performance.