Youri Gendel

Tubular carbon nanotube-based gas diffusion electrode removes persistent organic pollutants by a cyclic adsorption - Electro-Fenton process.

We report a novel tubular electrochemical cell which is operated in a cyclic adsorption - electro-Fenton process and by this means overcomes the drawbacks of the traditional electro-Fenton process. A microtube made only of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) functions as a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) and highly porous adsorber. In the process, the pollutants were first removed electroless from the wastewater by adsorption on the MWCNT-GDE. Subsequently, the pollutants are electrochemically degraded in a defined volume of electrolyte solution using the electro-Fenton process. Oxygen was supplied into the lumen of the saturated microtubular GDE which was surrounded by a cylindrical anode made of Ti-felt coated with Pt/IrO2 catalysts. For the proof of concept the model pollutant Acid Red 14 (AR14), an azo dye, was used. The decomposition of AR14 was studied at different applied current densities and initial concentrations of ferrous iron in the electrolyte solution. At optimal conditions, complete regeneration of the adsorption capacity of the MWCNT-GDE, complete decolorization and TOC and COD removal rates of 50% and 70% were achieved, respectively. The MWCNT-GDE is regenerated and again available for adsorption. This approach allows water treatment independent of its composition, thus does not require any addition of chemicals to the wastewater.

H2S(g) removal using a modified, low-ph liquid redox sulfur recovery (LRSR) process with electrochemical regeneration of the Fe catalyst couple.

A modified pH 1.0 liquid redox sulfur recovery (LRSR) process, based on reactive absorption of H(2)S((g)) in an acidic (pH 1.0) iron solution ([Fe(III)] = 9-8 g L(-1), [Fe(II)] = 1-2 g L(-1)) and electrochemical regeneration of the Fe(III)/Fe(II) catalyst couple, is introduced. Fe(II) was oxidized in a flow-through electrolytic cell by Cl(2(aq)) formed on a Ti/RuO(2) anode. pH 1.0 was applied to retard the potential precipitation of predominantly jarosite group Fe(III) species. At pH 1.0, the presence of chloride ions at [Cl(-)] = 30 g L(-1) allows for both efficient (indirect) electrochemical oxidation of Fe(II) and efficient H(2)S((g)) reactive absorption. The latter observation was hypothesized to be associated with higher concentrations of Fe(III)-Cl complexes that are more highly reactive toward H(2)S((aq)) than are free Fe(III) ions and Fe-SO(4) complexes that otherwise dominate pH 1.0 Fe(III) solutions in the absence of a significant Cl(-) concentration. At the described operational conditions the rate of Fe(II) oxidation in the experimental system was 0.793 kg Fe h(-1) per m(2) anode surface area, at a current efficiency of 58%. Electricity cost within the electrochemical step was approximated at

A new approach to increasing the efficiency of low-pH Fe-electrocoagulation applications

0.9 per kg H(2)S((g)) removed.

3D-printed conductive static mixers enable all-vanadium redox flow battery using slurry electrodes

Incomplete oxidation of Fe(II) species released from the anode to Fe(III) may impede iron electrocoagulation processes conducted under low dissolved oxygen and/or pH<7 conditions, accompanied by the typically high buffering capacity of wastewater. This paper introduces a new approach to overcome this drawback by applying a second electrochemical cell (Ti/RuO(2) anode and Ti cathode) to be operated in parallel to the electrocoagulation cell. The second unit oxidizes Cl(-) ions invariably present in the water to HOCl, which is capable of oxidizing Fe(II) species at a high rate, irrespective of pH or O(2(aq)) concentration. An electrolytic cell with a Ti/RuO(2) anode and Ti cathode was shown to successively operate in parallel to a sacrificial electrocoagulation cell (Fe anode and Ti cathode) to attain complete Fe(II) conversion to Fe(III) under low-pH conditions, in which, in the absence of the 2nd cell, unwanted Fe(II) species would have dominated the dissolved iron species. Current efficiency for Cl(2) production was 12.4% and 45.7% at 200 and 1000 mg Cl/l, respectively. Under three practical conditions (pH 6, [Cl(-)]=200 mg/l; pH 6, [Cl(-)]=400 mg/l; pH 5, [Cl(-)]=600 mg/l) the power demand of the combined system was 25.29, 12.7 and 8.1 kWh/kg Fe(III)(produced), respectively, suggesting that the presented approach is competitive at [Cl(-)]>∼600 mg/l.

Struvite recovery from municipal-wastewater sludge centrifuge supernatant using seawater NF concentrate as a cheap Mg(II) source

Abstract State-of-the-art all-vanadium redox flow batteries employ porous carbonaceous materials as electrodes. The battery cells possess non-scalable fixed electrodes inserted into a cell stack. In contrast, a conductive particle network dispersed in the electrolyte, known as slurry electrode, may be beneficial for a scalable redox flow battery. In this work, slurry electrodes are successfully introduced to an all-vanadium redox flow battery. Activated carbon and graphite powder particles are dispersed up to 20 wt% in the vanadium electrolyte and charge-discharge behavior is inspected via polarization studies. Graphite powder slurry is superior over activated carbon with a polarization behavior closer to the standard graphite felt electrodes. 3D-printed conductive static mixers introduced to the slurry channel improve the charge transfer via intensified slurry mixing and increased surface area. Consequently, a significant increase in the coulombic efficiency up to 95% and energy efficiency up to 65% is obtained. Our results show that slurry electrodes supported by conductive static mixers can be competitive to state-of-the-art electrodes yielding an additional degree of freedom in battery design. Research into carbon properties (particle size, internal surface area, pore size distribution) tailored to the electrolyte system and optimization of the mixer geometry may yield even better battery properties.