A clean and membrane-free chlor-alkali process with decoupled Cl2 and H2/NaOH production

Mengyan Hou, Long Chen, Zhaowei Guo, Xiaoli Dong, Yonggang Wang () and Yongyao Xia ()
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Mengyan Hou: Fudan University
Long Chen: Fudan University
Zhaowei Guo: Fudan University
Xiaoli Dong: Fudan University
Yonggang Wang: Fudan University
Yongyao Xia: Fudan University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Existing chlor-alkali processes generally use asbestos, mercury or fluorine-containing ion-exchange membranes to separate the simultaneous chlorine production on the anode and hydrogen production on the cathode, and form sodium hydroxide in the electrolyte. Here, using the Na+ de-intercalation/intercalation of a Na0.44MnO2 electrode as a redox mediator, we decouple the chlor-alkali process into two independent steps: a H2 production step with the NaOH formation in the electrolyte and a Cl2 production step. The first step involves a cathodic H2 evolution reaction (H2O → H2) and an anodic Na+ de-intercalation reaction (Na0.44MnO2 → Na0.44−xMnO2), during which NaOH is produced in the electrolyte solution. The second step depends on a cathodic Na+ intercalation reaction (Na0.44−xMnO2 → Na0.44MnO2) and an anodic Cl2 production (Cl → Cl2). The cycle of the two steps provides a membrane-free process, which is potentially a promising direction for developing clean chlor-alkali technology.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02877-x

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