Ultrafine Particle Recycling─Efficiency of the Hydrophobic Double Emulsion Technique for the Selective Agglomeration and Froth Flotation of Ultrafine Cathode Catalyst Particles from PEM Water Electrolyzers
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
On account of the use of platinum group metals (PGMs) as active materials in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMEL) cells, development of recycling processes for fine catalyst materials is indispensable for further scale-up of hydrogen production. By applying a contrast in (de)wetting ability of the materials, ultrafine particles have the potential to be separated for recycling. The limitation of particle size in froth flotation technology can be overcome by adding oil droplets to the system. This study investigates the selective separation of ultrafine particles by applying hydrophobic high internal phase (HIP) water-in-oil emulsion containing only 5% of organic liquid emulsified as a double emulsion in the particle dispersion. Hydrophobic cathode particles (i.e., carbon black) are selectively agglomerated in this system, allowing 90% of the feed to be recovered in the froth phase. The recovery rate was also significantly higher than that using the same amount of pure oil promoter, kerosene. In the binary particle system, 70% of the target particles are recovered with 90% grade by adding 2.8% hydrophobic double emulsion.
期刊介绍:
)ACS Engineering Au is an open access journal that reports significant advances in chemical engineering applied chemistry and energy covering fundamentals processes and products. The journal's broad scope includes experimental theoretical mathematical computational chemical and physical research from academic and industrial settings. Short letters comprehensive articles reviews and perspectives are welcome on topics that include:Fundamental research in such areas as thermodynamics transport phenomena (flow mixing mass & heat transfer) chemical reaction kinetics and engineering catalysis separations interfacial phenomena and materialsProcess design development and intensification (e.g. process technologies for chemicals and materials synthesis and design methods process intensification multiphase reactors scale-up systems analysis process control data correlation schemes modeling machine learning Artificial Intelligence)Product research and development involving chemical and engineering aspects (e.g. catalysts plastics elastomers fibers adhesives coatings paper membranes lubricants ceramics aerosols fluidic devices intensified process equipment)Energy and fuels (e.g. pre-treatment processing and utilization of renewable energy resources; processing and utilization of fuels; properties and structure or molecular composition of both raw fuels and refined products; fuel cells hydrogen batteries; photochemical fuel and energy production; decarbonization; electrification; microwave; cavitation)Measurement techniques computational models and data on thermo-physical thermodynamic and transport properties of materials and phase equilibrium behaviorNew methods models and tools (e.g. real-time data analytics multi-scale models physics informed machine learning models machine learning enhanced physics-based models soft sensors high-performance computing)