Direct electrosynthesis of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid from brine streams
Name
Perpective_Lienhard.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.06 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Kumar, Amit
Phillips, Katherine Reece
Thiel, Gregory P.
Schröder, Uwe
Lienhard, John H
Date Issued
February 2019
Journal
Nature Catalysis
Publisher
Springer Nature
Citation
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
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0218-y
