Category: 14. Industrial Electrolysis, Electrochemical Reactors, and Redox-Flow Batteries

The redox-flow battery is a battery in the sense that it is used to store and release energy. However, it operates much like a combination of a fuel cell (discharge) and an electrolyzer (charge). In contrast to typical secondary batteries where the reactants are part of the electrode, the reactants and products in a flow battery are…

Electrolytic Fuel Generation As we look to the future, it seems clear that the sun will be our primary source of energy. In addition to solar thermal methods, solar energy can be captured in the form of energetic electrons and holes, inherently an electrochemical process. Also, since the availability of solar energy is cyclic, electrochemical…

As you may have noted, some of the industrial processes discussed in this chapter operate at high temperatures. The most extreme example considered is the electrowinning of aluminum, which takes place in molten salt at temperatures of almost 1000 °C. How much heat is required to maintain the required temperature and how is this heat supplied?…

Industrial electrolytic processes consume about 6% of the total electrical generating capacity of the United States, and represent the principal or only method for producing several important products. This section provides a brief summary of some important industrial applications. Synthesis of Inorganic ChemicalsElectrolytic production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, introduced earlier in this chapter, represents…

The process of designing an industrial electrochemical system is multifaceted, typically specialized to the application, and iterative. Our description is limited and focuses on the key trade-off between size and efficiency. This balance, illustrated in Figure 14.6, dominates the design process. Economic considerations are at the heart of the design of industrial electrolytic processes. As…

In this section, we examine the different polarizations or voltage losses present in typical electrolytic cells. The analysis is largely the same as for any electrochemical cell. Again, the objective is to establish the relationship between the potential of the cell and the current density. Recall from Chapter 4 for an electrolytic cell, (4.58b)We again…

This section describes three performance measures that are useful for industrial electrolytic systems. We begin with the faradaic efficiency, which is the ratio of the product mass to the amount that could be obtained based on the current and Faraday’s law, as was introduced previously in Chapter 1. It can be written as (14.1) where mi is the mass…

The purpose of industrial electrolysis is to use electrical energy to convert raw materials into desired products. This conversion of raw materials takes place in an electrochemical reactor. Since energy is added, the electrochemical cells used are electrolytic rather than galvanic. Hence, the term industrial electrolysis is used to describe these processes. Just two electrolytic processes, the…