Hypophosphorous acid (H3PO2) is
an important
chemical product with wide applications in pharmaceuticals and electroless
plating. In this study, bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) was
used to produce H3PO2 from sodium hypophosphite
salt (NaH2PO2) to replace the traditional preparation
methods. The BMED process was optimized in terms of current density,
NaH2PO2 salt concentration, and initial NaOH
concentration of the base solution. The results indicated that low
Na+ leakage occurred at lower salt concentrations. Under
the optimum conditions, such a BMED system obtained a high concentration
of H3PO2, a low Na+ content, and
a low energy consumption, equaling to 1.03 mol/L, 670 ppm, and 1.18
kW h/kg, respectively. To minimize the amount of phosphorous acid
(H3PO3) generated from H3PO2 oxidation during the BMED process, a nitrogen aeration operation
was applied in both the acid and salt chambers, decreasing the HPO3
2– content to 251 ppm, which was 44.1% lower
than that without a dissolved oxygen content control strategy. The
newly produced H3PO3 during the BMED process
was reduced by 96.5%. The obtained results indicated that the BMED
process has great potential for application in the production of high-quality
H3PO2 from NaH2PO2 in
industry.