A microfluidic flow-through electrochemical reactor for wastewater treatment: A proof-of-concept

•A new microfluidic flow-through reactor design is proposed.•Electrochemical reactor with low ohmic resistance and high mass transport•The proposed design clearly outperforms a commercial flow-by reactor.•Four times higher efficiency and six times lower energy consumption is achieved.

In this work, a microfluidic flow-through electrochemical reactor for wastewater treatment is presented which simultaneously minimizes ohmic drop and mass transfer limitations, two of the most important bottlenecks in electrochemical wastewater treatment. A proof-of-concept comparison versus a state-of-the-art flow-by commercial reactor revealed that the proposed reactor greatly outperforms the commercial system. The novel system requires only 2.4 Ah dm− 3 (vs. 11.4 Ah dm− 3) and 12.5 kWh m− 3 (vs. 75.0 kWh m− 3) to completely mineralize 100 mg dm− 3 of clopyralid spiked in a low-conductive (1 mS cm− 1) matrix with both systems using diamond anodes. The microfluidic flow-through configuration represents a promising approach to the development of cost-effective electrochemical technologies for wastewater treatment.

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