CURRENT EFFICIENCY LOSSES IN INDIRECT ELECTROCHEMICAL PROCESSING

There is considerable industrial interest in the indirect two-stage electrochemical process ('ex-cell' process) for the synthesis of organic compounds. One reason why this process has not become common is the loss in current efficiency observed in working processes due to organic matter present in the recycled electrolyte. In previous work it has been found that the loss in current efficiency using the Mn**2** plus /Mn**3** plus system in 88% H//2SO//4 was due to the oxidation of the organic compounds (mainly to CO//2) carried over with the electrolyte back to the electrochemical cell. In this work we extend the study in 50% w/w H//2SO//4, and a simple relation is proposed which permits the calculation of the loss in current efficiency from the total organic carbon present in the recycled electrolyte.