Premium
The importance of current distribution and cell hydrodynamic analysis for the design of electrocoagulation reactors
Author(s) -
Vázquez Armando,
Nava José Luis,
Cruz Roel,
Lázaro Isabel,
Rodríguez Israel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.4105
Subject(s) - current (fluid) , computational fluid dynamics , electrode , anode , mechanics , electrocoagulation , turbulence , current density , materials science , flow (mathematics) , fluid dynamics , cathode , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , quantum mechanics
BACKGROUND The effects of current distribution and cell hydrodynamics on the performance of an electrocoagulation ( EC ) reactor were studied. This analysis only considered the distributions of primary potential and current density. The hydrodynamic behavior was analyzed by means of computational fluid dynamics ( CFD ) using a turbulent model ( k–ϵ ). For this study, only the fluid movement between electrodes was taken into account . RESULTS The analysis of current distribution showed the effects of cell geometry and electrode configuration on both the potential and current distributions on the anodes. Insulators placed at the edges of the electrodes produced border effects on the potential values that favored a secondary reaction and diminished the formation of aluminum clots. The CFD analysis indicated that the cell geometry arrangement generates low velocity profiles between the electrodes. From the experimental evaluation, it was observed that EC performance was improved when uniform potential and current densities were achieved with low flow velocity profiles . CONCLUSIONS Analysis of the hydrodynamic behavior showed the impact of different hydrodynamic phenomena on both the formation of clots and the removal of the sludge formed. Likewise, it was confirmed that in optimizing energy consumption, an analysis of current distribution is a very useful tool for evaluating the arrangement of electrodes and the cell geometry .