TY - JOUR
T1 - Mass transfer and residence time distribution in an electrochemical cell with an air-diffusion electrode
T2 - Effect of air pressure and mesh promoters
AU - Walker, W. Shane
AU - Bezerra Cavalcanti, Eliane
AU - Atrashkevich, Aksana
AU - Fajardo, Ana S.
AU - Brillas, Enric
AU - Garcia-Segura, Sergi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (EEC- 1449500 ) Nanosystems Engineering Research Center on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, by MINECO (Spain) under the Project CTQ2013-48897-C2-1-R, co-financed with FEDER funds. Dr. Eliane Bezerra Cavalcanti acknowledges the financial support from CAPES (BEX 9263/11-0)/MEC/Brazil, Instituto de Tecnologia e Pesquisa/ITP and Universidade Tiradentes/UNIT and Dr. Ana S. Fajardo acknowledges the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 843870.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/5/10
Y1 - 2021/5/10
N2 - Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) have shown excellent capabilities to the abatement of recalcitrant organic pollutants. The Fenton-based electrochemical systems have shown great performance for in-situ generation of H2O2, allowing an efficient ●OH production for the mineralization of organic pollutants. These systems have been widely applied at bench scale; however, studies to scale-up to a higher technology readiness level (TRL) are lacking. One of the main scale-up challenges of the Fenton-based systems is the implementation of air diffusion electrodes (ADE) in flow-by electrochemical cells. The ADE adds additional complexity with respect to mass transfer effects due to hydraulic reactor design and ADE gas pressure control. Therefore, this work experimentally investigated residence time distribution and platinum-sheet electrode mass transfer effects due to (a) the liquid cross-flow velocity through the electrochemical cell, (b) the gas pressure of the air-diffusion electrode (ADE), and (c) the presence of mesh sheet mass transfer promoters between the electrodes. Analysis of experimental results revealed a synergistic improvement of mass transfer with the ADE gas flow and the presence of mesh promoters. Engineers could exploit this synergistic effect to design electrochemical cells with significantly lower capital cost.
AB - Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) have shown excellent capabilities to the abatement of recalcitrant organic pollutants. The Fenton-based electrochemical systems have shown great performance for in-situ generation of H2O2, allowing an efficient ●OH production for the mineralization of organic pollutants. These systems have been widely applied at bench scale; however, studies to scale-up to a higher technology readiness level (TRL) are lacking. One of the main scale-up challenges of the Fenton-based systems is the implementation of air diffusion electrodes (ADE) in flow-by electrochemical cells. The ADE adds additional complexity with respect to mass transfer effects due to hydraulic reactor design and ADE gas pressure control. Therefore, this work experimentally investigated residence time distribution and platinum-sheet electrode mass transfer effects due to (a) the liquid cross-flow velocity through the electrochemical cell, (b) the gas pressure of the air-diffusion electrode (ADE), and (c) the presence of mesh sheet mass transfer promoters between the electrodes. Analysis of experimental results revealed a synergistic improvement of mass transfer with the ADE gas flow and the presence of mesh promoters. Engineers could exploit this synergistic effect to design electrochemical cells with significantly lower capital cost.
KW - Advanced oxidation processes
KW - Air-diffusion electrode
KW - Electro-Fenton
KW - Electrochemical engineering
KW - Water treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138131
DO - 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138131
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102783913
VL - 378
JO - Electrochimica Acta
JF - Electrochimica Acta
SN - 0013-4686
M1 - 138131
ER -