Electrochemical pump membrane reactors

Figure 5.5 Principles of dense ceramic membrane reactors (a) electrochemical pump membrane reactor (EP-MR) (b) solid oxide fuel cell membrane reactor (SOEC-MR) (c) mixed ionic-electronic conducting membrane reactor (MIEC-MR).

Catalytic applications of solid electrolyte membrane reactors using electrochemical oxygen pumping (EOP)... 

Another class of dense inorganic membranes that have been used in membrane reactor applications are solid oxide type membranes. These materials (solid oxide electrolytes) are also finding widespread application in the area of fuel cells and as electrochemical oxygen pumps and sensors. Due to their importance they have received significant attention and their catalytic and electrochemical applications have been widely reviewed [94-98]. Solid materials are known which conduct a variety of cationic/anionic species [14,98]. For the purposes of the application of such materials in catalytic membrane reactor applications, however, only and conducting materials are of direct relevance. 

Solid-state electrochemistry is an important and rapidly developing scientific field that integrates many aspects of classical electrochemical science and engineering, materials science, solid-state chemistry and physics, heterogeneous catalysis, and other areas of physical chemistry. This field comprises - but is not limited to - the electrochemistry of solid materials, the thermodynamics and kinetics of electrochemical reactions involving at least one solid phase, and also the transport of ions and electrons in solids and interactions between solid, liquid and/or gaseous phases, whenever these processes are essentially determined by the properties of solids and are relevant to the electrochemical reactions. The range of applications includes many types of batteries and fuel cells, a variety of sensors and analytical appliances, electrochemical pumps and compressors, ceramic membranes with ionic or mixed ionic-electronic conductivity, solid-state electrolyzers and electrocatalytic reactors, the synthesis of new materials with improved properties and corrosion protection, supercapacitors, and electrochromic and memory devices. 

Figure 8 (Top) Electrochemical flow cell for the oxidation of phenol and aniline (a) Pb anode feeder (b) packed bed of 1-mm lead pellets (c) stainless steel cathode plate (d) Nation membrane (e) stainless steel screen (f) Luggin capillary (g) glass beads (h) gasket (i) reactor inlet (j) reactor outlet. (Bottom) Schematic of apparatus (a) electrochemical reactor (b) peristaltic pump (c) water bath (d) heater (e) anolyte reservoir (t) gas sparging tube (g) C02 adsorbers. (From Ref. 39.)... 

Propene oxidation was carried out by using an electrochemical reactor constructed from a Sm doped ceria electrolyte coated with YSZ (YSZ 1 SDC) as a membrane. In a blank test where nitrogen gas alone was passed over the Au anode instead of the reaction gas at 450 C, it was confirmed that the oxygen pumping was well controlled by the applied current, i.e., the amount of oxygen gas evolved at the anode coincided well the value calculated from the electric current by using Faraday s law. 

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