Enhancement of mass transfer in the fluidized bed electrode reactors

With the view of developing the fluidized bed electrode system, mass transf er coefficient, overpotential distribution, and copper degradation have bee n observed in this investigation. Particles whose diameters were one of 327 , 388, 510, 548, 750, and 960 mu m were fluidized by the 1,000 ppm copper s ulfate electrolyte. This study used two types of the experimental reactor. One had 5x5.5 cm bed-dimension with various thickness in a rectangular side -by-side configuration; the other 3.2 cm bed-diameter with various height i n a cylindrical flow-through configuration. Mass transfer coefficient incre ased with increasing particle diameter, and the optimum fluidization was ob tained at the condition of bed porosity near 0.65. For processing a large f luidized bed reactor, the expansion of bed height at a distance between ele ctrodes was found to be more effective than the enlargement of bed thicknes s between electrodes. By replacing a three-dimensional current-feeder with a plane feeder, degradation and residual concentration of copper ion in a b atch recycling mode could be achieved to be higher than 99% and less than 5 mg/L, respectively.