Bernoulli’s principle-mediated Cl2 electrosynthesis

TL;DR

A new electrochemical system uses Bernoulli’s principle to efficiently and cost-effectively produce chlorine gas (Cl2) by controlling gas migration and preventing product crossover.

Contribution

A novel Cl2 electrosynthesis method using Bernoulli’s principle for gas separation in a three-phase system without membranes.

Findings

The system achieves Faradaic efficiencies of 96.3% to 87.6% across a wide current density range.

The method reduces Cl2 production costs by 6.75%, saving about $1.17 million annually compared to traditional methods.

The pH-tolerant design allows Cl2 production under varying electrolyte conditions without a membrane.

Abstract

Existing technologies for chlorine (Cl2) synthesis are generally suffered from low productivity or high production cost. Guided by Bernoulli’s principle, here we report an efficient yet cost-effective electrochemical system for Cl2 electrosynthesis, which is composed of anodic chlorine evolution reaction (CER) connected to gas chamber by triple-phase gas diffusion layer. The key is to modulate gas diffusion layer by Bernoulli’s principle, wherein the pressure difference at triple-phase boundary drives oriented Cl2 migration directly into gas chamber, thus preventing the crossover of anodic/cathodic products. By further joining with a pH-tolerant catalyst, a standalone prototype device is built for high-rate Cl2 production, operating at the Faradaic efficiencies of 96.3% ~ 87.6% in the current density range of 0.1 ~ 1.14 A cm−2, having superior Cl2 synthesis performance. Further technical-economic evaluations of our synthetic scheme demonstrate reduced Cl2 production cost, saving 6.75% (1.17 million dollar per year) as comparison to conventional chlor-alkali design. We expect these findings offer broader opportunities to develop industrially production processes for other chemical commodities.

The method for separating Cl2 based on the Bernoulli principle enables efficient electrochemical chlorine evolution under universal pH conditions in a three-phase system. This enables assembly of a membrane-free system that can resist the influence of pH changes in the electrolyte.

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