Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The apparatus by which the new process is being successfully
demonstrated on a working scale has been put up by the Caustic Soda
and Chlorine Syndicate, London, and has been in operation for several
months past. The installation consists of five large electrolytic
vessels, each of which is fitted up with five anodes and six cathodes
arranged alternately. The anodes and cathodes are separated by the
special diaphragms, and each vessel is thus divided into ten anode or
chlorine sections and ten cathode or caustic soda sections. The anodes
and cathodes in each vessel are connected up in parallel similar to an
ordinary storage battery, but the five electrolytic vessels are
connected up in series. The current is produced by an Elwell-Parker
dynamo, and the electromotive force required to overcome the
resistance of each vessel is about 4.4 volts, with a current density
of 10 amperes per square foot of electrode surface. The anode
sections, numbering fifty altogether, are connected by means of tubes,
the inlet being at the bottom and the outlet at the top of each
section. The whole of the cathode sections are connected in the same
manner. In commencing operations, the electrolytic vessels are charged
with a solution of common salt, through which a current of electricity
is then passed, thus decomposing or splitting up the salt into its
elements, chlorine and sodium. In the separation of the sodium,
however, a secondary action takes place, which converts it into
caustic soda. An automatic circulation of the solutions is maintained
by placing the charging tanks at a slight elevation, and the vessels
themselves on platforms arranged in steps. The solutions are pumped
back from the lowest vessel to their respective charging tanks, the
salt solution to be further decomposed and the caustic soda solution
to be further concentrated. The chlorine gas evolved in the fifty
anode sections is conveyed by means of main and branch tubes into
several absorbers, in which milk of lime, kept in a state of
agitation, takes up the chlorine, thus making it into bleaching or
chlorate liquor as may be required. If the chlorine is required to be
made into bleaching powder, then it is conveyed into leaden chambers
and treated with lime in the usual manner. The caustic soda formed in
the fifty cathode sections is more or less concentrated according to
the particular purpose for which it may be required. If, however, the
caustic soda is required in solid form, and practically free from
salt, then the caustic alkaline liquor is transferred from the
electrolytic vessels to evaporating pans, where it is concentrated to
the required strength by evaporation and at the same time the salt
remaining in the solution is eliminated by precipitation.
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