Environment and Safety Engineering

Academic Staff

Hiroyuki NAKAGAWA

Hiroyuki NAKAGAWAAssociate Professor (Graduate School of Engineering)

Research Topics

  1. Treatment of wastes which is hard to be degraded using catalytic decomposition or oxidation.
  2. Removal of trace elements such as As in the water.
  3. Utilization of solid wastes as functional materials or energy resources.

Contacts

E-mail: hiroyuki@cheme.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Introduction to Research

The research in this koza is focused on the development of the technology for environmental preservation and safety life from the viewpoint of chemical engineering.

1. Treatment of chlorinated organic compounds

Chlorinated organic compounds are likely to cause serious environmental problems when they are released to the environment since the degradation rate of them is generally rather slow.  We have developed the technology to decompose chlorinated organic compounds through the catalytic hydrothermal gasification.

2. Treatment of trace elements in wastewater

Trace elements such as As and Se are strongly toxic even at low concentration level although they are believed to be essential elements for human beings.  Selective removal of them from wastewater is examined for the advanced treatment.

3. Utilization of solid wastes

Non-destructive solid wastes are generally landfilled for disposal after fixing the pollutants.  The amount of solid wastes has to be reduced since the capacity of landfill sites is limited.  Ferrite wastes generated by the treatment of inorganic wastewater contain heavy metals such as Ni that can be utilized as catalyst.  They are applied to the environmental catalysts.

Fig10-1
Fig.1 Ferrite waste is soft magnetic material. It can be easy separated from water by magnets after utilizing as catalyst for water treatment.