Optimization of Active Chlorine Production in a Filter-Press Type Electrochemical Reactor through Continuum Modelling and Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

This study proposes a methodology to optimize the design of an electrochemical flow-by reactor to increase the active chlorine production. The performances of various reactor configurations were evaluated using Computational Fluid Dynamics, starting from the dimensions of the well-known FM01-LC reactor channel (B = 4 cm, L = 16 cm, and S = 1 cm), increasing or decreasing each component by 25%. These conditions were calculated using a Box-Behnken design of experiments, screening out the above dimensions as parameters in addition to the volumetric flow, which was operated at two different rates: 1 and 5 l min−1. A surface response methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize the response variables, and determine the best design parameters. The combined computational study herein proposed suggests that the optimization of the flow electrochemical reactor design is a compromise between the flow uniform distribution, and mass transfer. It is found that the optimization method used is adequate at the experimental level, since the optimized channel (0.01 M) presents better performance than the conventional FM01-LC channel (0.002 M), after 60 min of experimental electrolysis. It is expected the current analysis will contribute to the development of new filter-press-type electrochemical reactors optimizing chlorine production for numerous applications.