Research
Overview of Our Research Fields
Our group aims to develop various environmental technologies pursuing carbon neutrality using electrochemistry as a tool.
Metal Extraction from Spent Batteries
The demand for lithium-ion batteries has been growing rapidly in recent years, so people are looking for ways to make a sustainable supply of raw materials. Also, battery wastes are being generated. Therefore, recycling metals from battery waste is required to reduce waste and make a sustainable cycle. Our team is developing electrochemical separation methods to extract valuable metal resources from discarded batteries and also recover valuable resources from brines.
CO2 Capture & Utilization
The increase in atmospheric CO2 levels has led to global warming and climate change, with humanity now recognizing the significance of this issue. To mitigate the problems, our group is actively developing electrochemical technologies to capture CO2 from various sources, including air, flue gas, and ocean. Furthermore, we are investigating the electrochemical reduction of CO2 into useful chemicals to enable the practical utilization of captured CO2.
Desalination & Nutrient Recovery
For a sustainable city system, it is essential to reduce water usage through water reuse and to save energy and cost in the water treatment process by recovering useful resources from used water. Our group is developing electrochemical ion adsorption processes to remove ionized contaminants and salts from water for water reuse. Additionally, we are developing electrodes and systems to selectively separate useful resources such as nitrogen and phosphorus through simple ion adsorption and desorption.