Nitrogenous pollutants have caused serious environmental pollution, which endangers human life and ecological environment. The electrochemical nitrogenous pollutants reduction to ammonia driven by clean electric energy has been considered as an ideal technology for the recovery and utilization of nitrogenous pollutants. Unfortunately, the electrochemical reduction of nitrogenous pollutants has long been limited by low solubility, slow mass transfer, low partial current density, and competitive hydrogen production. Recently, technologies such as gas diffusion electrodes, enrichment of reactant on catalysts surface and tandem catalytic sites have been applied to solve these problems and surprising progress has been made. In order to reduce the driving voltage of the actual two electrode electrolytic cell, some small molecules (hydrogen sulfide and glycerol) are used as backup oxidation reaction to replace slow kinetic oxygen evolution reaction, with nitrogenous pollutants reduction reactions as cathode reaction. In addition, efficient nitrogenous pollutants catalysts are also used to construct clean batteries for simultaneous nitrogenous pollutant recovery, ammonia synthesis, and electrical energy output. It is worth noting that nitrogenous pollutant reaction can also be combined with carbon dioxide reduction reaction to achieve the synthesis of carbon nitrogen compounds, which further expands the application scope of nitrogenous pollutant reaction. The research progress in the field of nitrogenous pollutants reduction is highlighted in this review. Finally, challenges facing and possible development direction in the future are presented. This review will hopefully provide suggestions for the industrial application of the electrochemical reduction of nitrogenous pollutants.

含氮污染物已造成严重的环境污染，危害人类生活和生态环境。清洁电能驱动的含氮污染物电化学还原氨被认为是含氮污染物回收利用的理想技术。不幸的是，含氮污染物的电化学还原长期以来受到溶解度低、传质慢、分电流密度低和制氢竞争激烈的限制。最近，气体扩散电极、催化剂表面反应物富集和串联催化位点等技术已被应用于解决这些问题，并取得了令人惊讶的进展。为了降低实际二电极电解槽的驱动电压，一些小分子（硫化氢和甘油）被用作备用氧化反应，以取代缓慢的动力学氧气释放反应，含氮污染物还原反应作为阴极反应。此外，高效的含氮污染物催化剂也被用于构建清洁电池，用于同时回收含氮污染物、氨合成和电能输出。值得注意的是，含氮污染物反应还可以与二氧化碳还原反应相结合，实现碳氮化合物的合成，进一步扩大了含氮污染物反应的应用范围。本文重点介绍了氮污染物减排领域的研究进展。最后，提出了未来面临的挑战和可能的发展方向。