Modeling of three-dimensional flow cell reactor with serpentine channel for nitrate electroreduction to ammonia

Abstract

Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to ammonia is one of an effective way to reach the large-scale industrialization of green ammonia synthesis. However, most of the current research in this field has focused on the development of catalysts, neglecting the important role of reactor operating parameter tuning in achieving efficient ammonia synthesis. In this work, the integrated model to describe the species field and interfacial reactions in the reactor has been developed based on the electrocatalytic flow cell reactor with serpentine flow channel. Further, the effects on the mass transfer and interfacial reactions triggered by the variation of operating parameters are analyzed deeply at both experimental and theoretical computational aspects. The results indicate that the total mass transfer flux at the interface and cross-section region of the electrode and the flow channel is synergistically mediated by the convective and diffusive fluxes, and the flux values of the two fluxes show a significant order of magnitude difference.