Calculating Mechanical Component Voltage Drops In Electrochemical Cells

When designing an industrial electrochemical cell the designer will attempt to minimize all voltage losses associated with carrying the current to and from the working surfaces of the electrodes, as a means of reducing the total cell power requirements. In order to be able to do this the designer must have a method to accurately calculate the values of these voltage losses. More importantly, however, the designer must ensure that the preferred design, whilst it may achieve the voltage losses required, does not actually increase the total power requirements by adversely affecting the current distribution. A simple method is given which demonstrates that the voltage losses in the current carriers can only be calculated once the current distribution is known and thus achieves both objectives at once. ICI’s FM21 membrane electrolyzer, which is in use for the commercial production of chlorine and caustic soda by electrolyzing brine, is used as an example to illustrate the calculation procedure. As the method is so simple only minor modifications will be necessary to make it applicable to other electrochemical cell system.