Electrochemical Microreactor Design for Alkoxylation Reactions—Experiments and Simulations

Abstract

Two types of the bipolar electrochemical microreactor (BEMR) were investigated for methoxylation of 4-methylanisole: A block-type BEMR with a fixed number of parallel electrodes and a filter-press-type BEMR with a variable number of parallel electrodes. On the basis of a numerical parametric study, the current utilization factor η was presented for the two microreactors as a function of the dimensionless current I* for different system parameters. Conversion and selectivity of the alkoxylation reaction was studied experimentally and the performance of both BEMR was compared. Even though the optimization of the reactor design is still needed particularly with respect to liquid distribution into the individual parallel microchannels, heat management and gas removal, the presented results indicated that the bipolar arrangement of electrochemical microreactors certainly offers a great potential for the intensification of alkoxylation reactions.