Potassium Ferrate and/or Sodium Ferrate Generation Using a Prototype of Electrochemical Reactor without Membrane

In this work, electrochemical generation of ferrate ion (FeO4-2) using a prototype of batch electrochemical reactor with agitation was studied. The anode used was a piece of steel tube (ASTM-A53) of 2 inches of nominal diameter and the cathode used was a steel bar of 0.5 inches. In the electrochemical reactor we did not use membranes, in order to diminish production costs and to make it a much more competitive and attractive process. Two different electrolytes were tested as reactant medium in the system: NaOH (10 M) and KOH (10 M). A current density of 53.62 mA/cm2 was applied with respect to the anode during a period of time of two hours. Afterwards the concentration of ferrate was determined in function of time using a spectroscopy method. It was found that the concentration of ferrate is higher in NaOH as reactant medium than KOH.