Design of Micro Electrolytic Reactors towards Acceleration of Mass Transfer

The electroorganic process is the organic redox process using electrical energy. This process has great advantages such as no toxic reagents use and easy control of reactivity by adjusting the applied voltage or current. However, the electroorganic process faces the problems of consuming a huge amount of supporting electrolyte or electrical energy. The micro chemical process technology is expected to solve those problems. In this research, the characteristics of a micro electrolytic reactor (MER) are analyzed. The effects of design and operation parameters on the product yield are evaluated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.

CFD simulation is conducted for a 2-D rectangular channel. The key design and operation parameters of the MER are the channel size, the feed conditions, and the applied voltage. In order to systematically analyze the effects of design and operation parameters on the product yield, dimensionless numbers are derived from the diffusion–reaction mass balances. Simulations are executed by using a two-dimensional model and a one-dimensional model. The one-dimensional model has no depth distributions of velocity and concentration.

Results show that the product yield is improved by decreasing the applied voltage, the channel depth, and the feed concentration. At the same time, however, it is necessary to increase the reactor length, so this trade-off relation should be considered for the optimal design of MERs. In addition, it is clarified that the uniform concentration distribution in the depth direction is important in achieving the higher product yield.