Simulation of a Packed-Bed Electrochemical Reactor with Cooled Cathode for Continuously Producing Glyoxylic Acid by Oxalic Acid

Oxalic acid electrochemical reduction has been suggested as an important technology to produce glyoxylic acid;the packed-bed electrochemical reactor with cooled cathode(PERCC)has been proposed to solve the problem of lower space-time-yield that appeared in the parallel electrode reactor.Based on the mass balance equations,charge balance equations and kinetics equations of the system,a two-dimensional reactor model was established to describe the continuous operation process for producing glyoxylic acid from oxalic acid by PERCC.Using the orthogonal collocation method,the model equations could be numerically solved,and the glyoxylic concentration along the reactor length could be simulated.The modeling results indicated that the glyoxylic concentration increased quickly at the early stage of the reaction,but weared off following the further increase of the reactor length.The effects of a varied operating temperature and partial reflux on the concentration of glyoxylic acid were investigated by the model,indicating that both the approaches could effectively improve the glyoxylic acid concentration in the catholyte for a continuous operation process.The experimental results from a continuous operation process were generally in agreement with the calculated values of the model.