On Performance Capabilities of Alkaline Anolyte in Wastewater Management

摘要

A concept for electric converting a saline wastewater into basic solution (pH > 7) with a positive RedOx potential (alkaline anolyte) is considered. Such the medium can be obtained in situ at flowing wastewater via a special electrochemical cell with strongly polarized cathode (generating hydroxide anions) and quasi-equilibrium anode which intensively discharges hydroxide ions to hydroxyl radicals into the wastewater. The radicals will oxidize anions of strong acid and convert them into weak-acid micro precipitates in the flowing basic solution. These renewable nano-sorbents will uninterruptedly co-precipitate radioactive contamination from wastewater and be agglomerated as corrosion by-products in the felt-like anode. The consideration of liquid water as a chemical compound with a wide band gap shows that the anolyte (as a hyper-stoichiometric water, H_2O_(1+|x|)) is a simple and effective tool for varying physical and chemical properties of the aqueous solution due to forced changing its RedOx potential as one needs. This potential as Fermi level in the band gap of liquid water is the most convenient parameter for monitoring and managing the electrochemical potential of the aqueous medium. Its hyper-stoichiometric state is realized when Fermi level is shifted to the top of a valence band. This electro-oxidized state as the alkaline anolyte is characterized by an acceptor level, OH/OH~-, partially occupied by electrons. Then, the hydroxyl radical (OH~·) as the strongest oxidizer will oxidize intensively the metal anode and renew its surface for great removal of radio-nuclides from the wastewater due to their large specific area of renewable surface of hydroxide absorber on the felt-like anode.