Cathodic reduction of nitrate ions has been carried out using a sandwich type membrane reactor having a configuration of Pt vertical bar Nafion vertical bar Pt-Cu in absence of any supporting electrolyte. Both Pt and Cu metals are in polycrystalline form on the cathodic surface immobilized on Nafion membrane. The globular Cu particles have a wide range of sizes (70-120nm). During the course of electrolysis in the reactor, the bimetallic Pt-Cu surface reduces NO3- into NH3 and N-2 by means of electrochemical and catalytic hydrogenation reactions, respectively. The electrochemical contribution of nitrate reduction has been investigated in details by using voltammetric and electrolysis techniques. The NO3- ions are electrochemically reduced using a consecutive reaction. On the consecutive way of reduction, the intermediate NO2- and the final product NH3 are generated at -0.74V and -1.1 V versus Ag/AgCl (std. KCl), respectively. The molecular N-2 is generated by means of catalytic reactions followed by electrochemical hydrogen evolution. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.