ELECTROCHEMICAL OXIDATION OF T-CNSL USING SELECTIVE CATHODIC AND ANODIC STRATEGIES TO SIMULTANEOUSLY PRODUCE GREEN HYDROGEN AND ACETIC ACID

In this study, the scale-up of electrochemical treatment was investigated by treating cashew nutshell liquid (t-CNSL) effluent using a divided reactor, for the first time, with a photovoltaic-driven anion-exchange membrane (AEM-type) reactor with a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode as the anode and a Ni-Fe-based SS (stainless steel) mesh as the cathode, by applying different current densities (j) (40, 70, and 100 mA cm-2), types of electrolytes (NaOH and Na2SO4), and concentrations of t-CNSL (0.01, 0.05, or 0.10%). The results clearly demonstrated that a divided electrochemical reactor was successfully scaled up (from batch in previous work to flow cell in this study), favoring a selective accumulation of the acetic acid concentration (600 mg L-1) in the anodic compartment, when compared with an undivided reactor, with simultaneous production of green H2 (0.73 L) when a biomass effluent of 0.10% t-CNSL in 1 mol L-1 NaOH was electrolyzed by applying 40 mA cm-2.