Vertical electrolyzers

Because of the relatively high floor space required by horizontal mercury, designers of electrolyzers turned their attention to the designs of vertical electrolyzers. The first was installed by the firm I. G. Farben in Germany. 

The vertical electrolyzer (see Figs. 104 and 105) is an iron vessel, rubber-lined 2800 mm long, 2100 mm wide and 2200 mm high, divided into three compartments. The lower part has a semicylindrical bottom and is filled with mercury. It is connected to the negative pole of the current source. 

Vertical Electrolyzers. Diaphragm and membrane cells are genoally vertical. In the case of a bipolar-type electrolyzer, electricity is supplied ftom both ends of the cell stack, and the current is perpendicular to the electrode surface. On the other hand, electricity is supplied to a tank-type vertical electrolyzer from the top or bottom of the electrode, and this results in ohmic voltage drops within the electrode [1,13,14]. 

The zinc electrolyte contains ca 60 kg/m zinc as sulfate and ca 100 kg/m free sulfuric acid. It is electrolyzed between electrodes suspended vertically in lead or plastic-lined, eg, poly(vinyl chloride), concrete tanks. The insoluble anodes are made of lead with small amounts of silver. The anodic... 

Hargreaves-Bird An early process for electrolyzing brine. It used a vertical diaphragm, unlike earlier designs. Developed by J. Hargreaves and T. Bird, around 1890. 

Fig. 47. Schematic diagram of an electrolyzer with"partitions and vertical bipolar...

Electrolyzers with horizontal or vertical filtering diaphragms... 

Since a diaphragm alone is sufficient for the mechanical separation of the anolyte and the catholyte, there are also electrolyzers with vertical filtering diaphragms through which the electrolyte passes at a certain velocity. An... 

Units with vertical diaphragms are different from electrolyzers with horizontal diaphragms as the neutral zone is located in the centre of the diaphragm (see Fig. 89), thus the brine flowing through the electrolyzer comes in contact with the hydroxyl ions only in the pores of the diaphragm. If the... 

In spite of this, the Billiter electrolyzers still require much floor space for this reason they use to be gradually replaced by compact electrolyzers with vertical filtering diaphragms. 

Fig. W4. Vertical votary cathode mercury electrolyzer (side view).

Fig. 105. Vertical rotary cathode mercury electrolyzer (soction A -A from Fig. 104).

Fig. 7. Alercury cathode electrolyzer and decomposer (11) 1, brine level 2, metal anodes 3, mercury cathode, flowing along baseplate 4, mercury pump 5, vertical decomposer 6, water feed to decomposer 7, grapliite packing, promoting decomposition of sodium amalgam 8, caustic liquor exit 9, denuded mercury, 10, brine feed 11, brine exit 12, hydrogen exit from decomposer 13, clilorine gas space 14, clilorine exit 15, wash water.

Conventional hydrochloric acid electrolyzers consist of 30-36 individual cells connected in series (bipolar arrangement). The cells are formed from vertical electrode plates manufactured from graphite, between which there are diaphragms (for instance made from PVC fabric, distance to the plates ca. 6 mm). The feed with hydrochloric acid (22 wt%, identical for anode and cathode compartment) and the removal of the gases produced take place according to the filter press principle (see Chapter 2). Chlorine leaves the cell with the anolyte, hydrogen with the catholyte. 

The gas pressure for the electrolyzer system is provided by a hydrostatic column. This can be simply a vertical tube, the height of which provides pressure to the system as described in this formula ... 

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