Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams
Seawater is an abundant resource across the world, and its purification and by-product recovery methods are crucial for economical, environmentally safe and sustainable utilization. Desalinating seawater generally produces brine as a by-product that cannot be purified economically with current techn...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121991 |
| _version_ | 1811085433545687040 |
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| author | Kumar, Amit Phillips, Katherine Reece Thiel, Gregory P. Schröder, Uwe Lienhard, John H |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Kumar, Amit Phillips, Katherine Reece Thiel, Gregory P. Schröder, Uwe Lienhard, John H |
| author_sort | Kumar, Amit |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Seawater is an abundant resource across the world, and its purification and by-product recovery methods are crucial for economical, environmentally safe and sustainable utilization. Desalinating seawater generally produces brine as a by-product that cannot be purified economically with current technologies and which is instead released to the environment. In this Perspective, we discuss direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) from sea-water desalination brine as an emerging alternative solution. In this direct electrosynthesis (DE) process, the water splitting reaction is used to produce H⁺ and OH⁻ , which combine with the brine stream to produce NaOH and HCl. After introducing the scope of the process, we describe developments in earth-abundant catalysts for water splitting and the competing chlorine evolution reaction (CER), as well as challenges in inefficiency and productivity associated with these processes. Finally, we discuss the economic impact and feasibility of direct electrosynthesis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:09:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/121991 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:09:31Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1219912022-09-28T12:19:51Z Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams Kumar, Amit Phillips, Katherine Reece Thiel, Gregory P. Schröder, Uwe Lienhard, John H Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering Seawater is an abundant resource across the world, and its purification and by-product recovery methods are crucial for economical, environmentally safe and sustainable utilization. Desalinating seawater generally produces brine as a by-product that cannot be purified economically with current technologies and which is instead released to the environment. In this Perspective, we discuss direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) from sea-water desalination brine as an emerging alternative solution. In this direct electrosynthesis (DE) process, the water splitting reaction is used to produce H⁺ and OH⁻ , which combine with the brine stream to produce NaOH and HCl. After introducing the scope of the process, we describe developments in earth-abundant catalysts for water splitting and the competing chlorine evolution reaction (CER), as well as challenges in inefficiency and productivity associated with these processes. Finally, we discuss the economic impact and feasibility of direct electrosynthesis. 2019-08-15T16:31:23Z 2019-08-15T16:31:23Z 2019-02 2017-10 2019-05-08T14:06:11Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2520-1158 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121991 Kumar, Amit et al. "Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams." Nature Catalysis 2, 2 (February 2019): 106–113 © 2019 Springer Nature Limited en http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0218-y Nature Catalysis Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Nature Prof. Lienhard |
| spellingShingle | Kumar, Amit Phillips, Katherine Reece Thiel, Gregory P. Schröder, Uwe Lienhard, John H Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title | Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title_full | Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title_fullStr | Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title_full_unstemmed | Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title_short | Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| title_sort | direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121991 |
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