If electrical power can be obtained at a very low cost, or if the cost
is merely nominal, as it is when there is an appreciable difference
between the normal consumption and the peak load upon which the rate is
based, the electrolytic hypochlorite method offers some advantages but
in the great majority of plants it cannot economically compete with
bleach. The instability of the liquor and cell troubles have also
prevented the process being generally utilised. Baltimore and Cincinnati
experimented with this method but did not adopt it. Winslow[6] has
reported that, owing to the difficulty in obtaining bleach since the
outbreak of war, Petrograd has used electrolytic hypochlorite made from
salt.
_Diaphragm Process._ The various types of diaphragm cells that have been
commercially operated are of two varieties: (1) cells with submerged
diaphragms and (2) cells in which the electrolyte comes in contact with
one face only of an unsubmerged diaphragm.
The Le Sueur, Gibbs, Crocker, Billiter-Siemens, Nelson, and
Hargreaves-Bird cells are of the submerged diaphragm variety. The Nelson
cell has been operated for some time at the filtration plant at Little
Falls, N. J. The cells are fed with brine solution previously purified
by the addition of soda ash and have given fairly successful results
although the cost of maintenance is comparatively high. Tolman[7] has
reported that several towns in West Virginia use a bleach solution
prepared by absorbing chlorine, manufactured by the Hargreaves-Bird
process, in lime water; the solution contains about 1.95 per cent of
available chlorine.
The diaphragms in both the submerged and unsubmerged types are usually
constructed either with asbestos paper or cloth, placed in such a manner
as to divide the cells into two separate compartments: the anodic, into
which the brine is fed and where the chlorine is produced; and the
cathodic, where caustic soda is formed.
By maintaining the liquor in the anodic compartment at a higher
elevation than in the cathodic one, the direction of flow is towards the
latter, but owing to osmosis and diffusion the separation is not
complete and a portion of the caustic soda passes the diaphragm and
produces hypochlorite with a consequent loss of efficiency and rapid
deterioration of the anodes. With the exception of the Billiter-Siemens
cell, the submerged diaphragm cells operate at not more than 85 per cent
efficiency and the cost of maintenance is usually high.
In the non-submerged diaphragm types the invasion of the anodic
compartment by caustic is much reduced and the efficiency and life
increased.
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