The application of the principles of reaction engineering to electrochemical cell design

It is shown that detailed descriptions of complex electrochemical reactors may be obtained by using electrochemical analogues of the dye marker technique. Most cells show some degree of segregation and the extent of the stagnant phase as well as the residence time distribution, degree of dispersion etc. can be correlated with the hydrodynamic conditions. The performance of electrochemical reactors is shown to be strongly dependent on the contacting patterns. It is therefore important to develop methods for predicting the distribution of reaction in space in order to predict the overall performance. It is shown that approximate design methods can be applied which combine information on the local reaction rates with information on the distribution of potential; this method of modelling is compared to that used for non-isothermal endothermic reactions in conventional reactors.