Prediction of the secondary current distribution and leakage current in bipolar electrochemical reactors.

HENQUÍN EDUARDO R. BISANG JOSÉ M.

Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Congreso; 6th Spring Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry 2008. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.; 2008

International Society of Electrochemistry

The use of bipolar electrochemical reactors becomes promising for industrial processesdue to their simplified construction. However, the main disadvantage of these devicesis the leakage current, I*, which flows through the manifolds of the electrolyte inlet andoutlet by-passing the electrodes.In this contribution, the secondary current distribution in a bipolar reactor is calculatedby solving of the Laplace equation with the finite difference method considering aTafel kinetics at the electrodes, and it is compared with experimental results. Theexperimental current distribution was obtained with the segmented electrode methodusing the hydrogen and oxygen evolution from 1 M NaOH or 3 M NaOH as cathodicand anodic reactions. A good agreement is observed between experimental and theoretical results.