Catalytic decomposition of hydrazine nitrate and hydroxylamine nitrate in radioactive nitric acid waste liquid using Ru/AC catalyst

The 5 wt% Ru/AC catalysts were prepared using the impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized by N2 physical adsorption, XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM and ICP-AES. The catalytic activity and stability of the catalysts in decomposing hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN) and hydrazine nitrate (HN) in nitric acid were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the Ru/AC catalyst effectively decomposed HAN and HN with complete conversion under moderate reaction conditions (60–90 °C). When used for an extended duration of 1580 hours in radioactive nitric acid waste liquid, this catalyst displayed a remarkable processing capacity of 6.32 kilograms per gram of catalyst. Due to its environmentally friendly nature resulting from harmless gas product formation along with its simple device structure design, this protocol offers practicality and economic attractiveness.