Mass Transfer in a Porous Trielectrode Reactor under Steady‐State and Recirculating Conditions

A porous electrode sandwiched between two counterelectrodes was investigated for the recovery of silver from dilute silver cyanide solution. Both single‐pass steady‐state and recirculating experiments were conducted with this trielectrode reactor, and the results were compared with those of a traditional bielectrode reactor containing only one counterelectrode. A more uniform potential distribution was observed in the cathode of the trielectrode reactor, and a higher volumetric reaction rate is thus possible. A model was developed to derive an overall mass transfer coefficient from the results of recirculating experiments. The correlation is in good agreement with the one calculated from steady‐state experiments and is best represented by .