Avaliação dos coeficientes de transferência de massa e hidrodinâmica de diferentes geometrias de células eletroquímicas para o tratamento de BTX

Abstract

The oil and gas production processes generate large volumes of waste with high toxicity. In this industry, produced water is the most produced liquid volume with great polluting capacity. Among the organic contaminants, the aromatics, mainly BTEX, present a major risk to the environment and people's health. Over the past years, many studies have been conducted under the electrooxidation of aromatic compounds, showing that the electrochemical degradation is efficient for these substances, even more importantly, the process involves only the use of electrons as reactants. However, the design of the electrochemical reactor, hydrodynamics and mass transfer coefficients are critical parameters on the efficiency of the electrochemical process. In this context, the objective of this study was to investigate geometries of electrochemical cells, to determine the mass transfer coefficients and understand their hydrodynamics. Cells were studied in batch and flow design, varying stirring rate, the stirring position and spacing between electrodes. In order to determine the current limit, and thus the mass transfer coefficient (Km), it was used a concentration gradient of K4[FeCN]6 / K3[FeCN]6 (2:1) from 4 to 24 mM, in medium of 0.5 M NaOH. The results clearly showed that regarding the batch cell, increasing stirring rate and changing its position promote a considerable effect on Km; in the flow cell, no influences were achieved when the spacing of the electrodes was modified when the stirring (flow) is directed to the electrode surface; and, the flow cells are more efficient with regard to the elimination of inherent physical resistance to the electrochemical treatment. Finally, the results showed that the application of reactor is possible to treat electrochemically BTX because the better geometry has been identified, favoring the oxidation of the species on the electrode surface more rapidly and efficiently.