Enhancement of catalysis by a low energy electrochemical technique.

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)
Energy Efficiency(Industry)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Mr J Collins
C-Tech Innovation Limited

3

Carbon Trust

01 August 2003

30 September 2004

14 months

£36,716

North West

Mr J Collins, C-Tech Innovation Limited

Project Contact, Magneto Special Anodes B.V., The Netherlands

The objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of increasing the rate of industrially relevant electrochemical reactions by selective and localised heat input into the electrode surface, with the aim of increasing electron transfer kinetics. It is expected that this increase in reaction rate will reduce the overpotential and hence substantially reduce the energy consumed or lost in the process.

Electrochemical reactions are either controlled by the kinetics of the exchange reaction between the electrode and the reactant species, or by diffusion of mass transport of the chemical species to the electrode. The project looks at selective heating of the electrode or selective pulse heating into the electrode surface to increase the efficiency of the reaction and reduce energy consumption. Electrode transfer kinetics are known to generally follow an Arrhenius relationship, whereby the reaction rates increase rapidly with temperature. Bulk temperature can be increased but this may alter the reactions taking place, degrade the products or be expensive. The project will compare the effects of bulk heating, high frequency AC or pulse heating of electrode, and short but intense heating pulse superimposed on normal electrolysis DC. The approach of increasing the rate of electron exchange will reduce the overpotential (and the voltage applied) in the electrochemical cell and consequently reduce the energy consumed in the electrochemical cell for the same reaction rate (current) and should allow reactions to proceed to a higher degree of completion. To date, suitable reactions have been identified for redox energy storage, organic synthesis and surface finishing. Suitable electrochemical cells and power supplies have been built. Initial observations have showed a 30% improvement in current efficiency and 25% reduction in energy consumption using pulsed DC over a steady DC current. The end result will be to demonstrate that the improvements in energy efficiency and reaction rate which are observed on the application of waveform can be applied to other electro-chemical processes. The technique offers the potential advantages of lower energy input, precise control and selectivity and may have applications for the storage of renewable energy. Future work intends to look at some surface modification reactions that have the potential to benefit from modification of the applied waveform

01/01/07