Mass Transfer Study inside a Li Production Electrolysis Cell Based on a Rigorous CFD Analysis

Litrico, Giuliana; Oliaii, Elaheh; Vieira, Camila Braga; Désilets, Martin; Proulx, Pierre

doi:10.11159/jffhmt.2018.003

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…, taken from Wilke's correlation which includes the non-ideal effects of the solution, and the turbulent diffusivity component (D T ). 15,20,21 The D T was taken from the turbulent viscosity of the electrolyte, assuming a Schmidt number equal to one.…”

Section: Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1), and it was partially simulated by Oliaii et al (2017-18) and . [8][9][10] They all have taken into account the detrimental effect of chlorine bubble production that brings an additional resistance to the mass and charge transfer taking place in the electrolyte solution and limits the electrochemical reactions on the anode surface. Recently, Melendez et al (2022) studied the effects of chlorine bubbles and liquid lithium fluid dynamics on the recombined lithium mass and the energy consumption.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reduction of Energy Consumption in Lithium Electrolytic Cell by Improving Design and Operating Conditions

Melendez

Désilets

Lantagne

2022

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Molten salt electrolysis is an efficient process for obtaining metallic lithium but requires a considerable amount of energy. The use of a grooved diaphragm and rotating electrodes were studied using a numerical model representing an experimental lithium electrolytic cell with the finality to reduce the required energy. Simulations were conducted using a turbulent (k-ε) model to solve the two-phase flow coupled to the transient mass transport inside an electrolysis cell. The model also considers the recombination of Li with chlorine gas (Cl2), a back reaction that is detrimental to efficiency and energy consumption. The vertical diaphragm with grooves produces a reduction of 26.7% in energy consumption in comparison with the ungrooved design but increases by four times the amount of recombined lithium in the process. To decrease that recombination, the grooved diaphragm was inclined. The angle of 85° reduced the energy consumption by 23.5% with approximately the same recombined lithium mass when compared to the vertical ungrooved design. The use of a rotating cathode with at an angular velocity of 0.25 rad/s results in a 40% decrease in energy consumption in addition to a decrease of 87.4% in metallic Li reconversion, in comparison with non-porous ungrooved diaphragm design.

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Section: Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction of Energy Consumption in Lithium Electrolytic Cell by Improving Design and Operating Conditions

Melendez

Désilets

Lantagne

2022

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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“…However, no work has been done to optimize the electrolysis cell by considering the secondary reaction in cell, which is one of the critical reasons affecting the electrolysis efficiency. Reports on the simulation of lithium electrolysis are few [22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing and optimizing the electrolysis efficiency of a lithium cell based on the electrochemical and multiphase model

et al. 2020

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Based on an electrochemical multiphysical simulation, a method for analysing electrolysis efficiency has been presented that considers the energy consumption required to produce a single kilogram of lithium and for the production of lithium, rather than the voltage in various parts. By adopting them as the criteria for analysing electrolysis efficiency in the lithium cell, several structural parameters have been optimized, such as the anode radius and anode–cathode distance. These parameters strongly affect the cell voltage and the velocity field distribution, which has a significant impact on the concentration distribution. By integrating the concentration distribution, the lithium production and energy consumption per kilogram, lithium is computed. By appointing the minimum of the chlorine and lithium concentration as the secondary reaction intensity, it is clear where the secondary reaction intensity is strong in the cell. The structure of a lithium electrolysis cell has been optimized by applying an orthogonal design approach, with the energy consumption notably decreasing from 35.0 to 28.3 kWh (kg Li) −1 and the lithium production successfully increasing by 0.17 mol.

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“…1 Due to these considerations, there has been a particular interest in developing new techniques and designs for lithium production electrolytic cells in the last years. [2][3][4][5][6] Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic of a Li-experimental electrolysis cell.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[7][8][9][10][11] Despite the importance of models' validation, very scarce experimental data is available on lithium electrolysis to assess the simulation results because the majority of the data comes from patents, a consequence of the economic importance of lithium. Recently, Oliaii et al (2017-18), Litrico et al (2018), and Zhao et al (2020) have achieved to provide numerical results showing the main fields inside lithium electrolysis cells. In this work, the validation of electrochemical results is based on Oliaii et al (2017-18) using an anode-cathode distance (ACD) of 0.0635 m. The main differences between their works and this research come from the assumptions made and the physics notions that are considered.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effect of Bubbles and Liquid Drops Fluid Dynamics on the Lithium Recombination inside a Lithium Electrolytic Cell with Diaphragm

Melendez¹,

Désilets²,

Lantagne³

et al. 2022

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Metallic lithium, which is a critical and strategic metal for the world’s production of energy storage devices, is mainly produced from molten salt electrolysis. To increase the efficiency of the process, it is of utmost importance to prevent lithium recombination during the process to avoid energy waste. This research studies the behavior of the main variables involved in the reaction inside a Li-production experimental cell from the mass transfer, electrochemical and fluid dynamics standpoints. Simulations were done for a total electrolysis time interval of 600 s using a turbulent (k-ε) approach to solve the two-phase flow coupled to the lithium electrolysis process. To analyze the influence of cathode fluid dynamics in relation with the amount of recombined lithium, two configurations of the diaphragm were evaluated including the incorporation of a baffle at the bottom of the cell and the inclination of the diaphragm. The baffle reduced the amount of recombined lithium by 7 %, and the diaphragm with an inclination < 90° reduced the total recombined mass by 77 %, although it increased the energy consumption by 10 % with respect to the base case of a vertical diaphragm.

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Mass Transfer Study inside a Li Production Electrolysis Cell Based on a Rigorous CFD Analysis

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

Reduction of Energy Consumption in Lithium Electrolytic Cell by Improving Design and Operating Conditions

Reduction of Energy Consumption in Lithium Electrolytic Cell by Improving Design and Operating Conditions

Analysing and optimizing the electrolysis efficiency of a lithium cell based on the electrochemical and multiphase model

Effect of Bubbles and Liquid Drops Fluid Dynamics on the Lithium Recombination inside a Lithium Electrolytic Cell with Diaphragm

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