C-Flow PLT

‘C-Flow PLT’ is a new design of electrochemical cell and plant, offering much higher
capacities – 4x flow rates - than are possible with current stack designs. It is a modular pilot
plant offering a step change in flexibility and reduced development costs for use by academic
and industrial R&D users.
Current designs are stack systems with multiple adjacent cells in an arrangement similar to a
heat exchanger or filter press. There is an inherent constriction to the flow of electrolyte into
and out of each cell in this design. This means that increasing flow rates lead to high pressure
drops across the equipment and capacity is limited: capital costs are high.
We will prove our concept of a very high flow rate electrochemical plant by designing and
building a four cell system including test rig, and balance of plant, with a target linear flow
velocity of 1ms-1 across the electrodes, corresponding to 75 litres/min of both anolyte and
catholyte per cell. The flow rate is four times that of comparable current cell designs and is a
step change increase in the operational capacity of electrochemical pilot plant, approaching
production scale volumes but with a much smaller footprint and an order of magnitude
difference in cost.
The design is modular – each cell is contained in its own cassette. This allows flexibility of
operation. Individual cells can be switched in and out of operation for maintenance with drybreak
couplings and with no disturbance to other cells. It also allows easy scale up and
addition of capacity.
This project will prove the concept with a four cell system and test rig, designed for 300
litre/minute operation of both anolyte and catholyte and 4000Am-2 current capacity. The unit
will be evaluated on three different chemical systems, demonstrating the usefulness for
treatment of dilute systems (e.g. waste water), viscous chemical synthesis requiring high
turbidity (and therefore flow rate), and synthesis requiring high volumetric flows.