Performance of a tubular electrochemical reactor, operated with different inlets, to remove Cr(VI) from wastewater

In the present work, the performance of a tubular electrochemical reactor operated with three different inlets (central, lateral and tangential) was evaluated. Fluid flow simulations through the electrochemical reactor were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The steady state fluid flow was simulated to visualize the velocity field behavior along the reactor for each different inlet. The type of reactor inlet affects clearly the performance of the reactor. It was found that axial velocity distribution is more homogeneous when the reactor is operated with the tangential inlet than with the other inlets. The dispersion number (Nd) and the residence time in the reactor were obtained for each type of inlet. These parameters were used to evaluate the performance of the electrochemical reactor to reduce the Cr(VI) concentration at values lower than 0.5 mg/L. The reactor operated with the tangential inlet had the best performance.