Technical–Economic Analysis of Hydrogen Peroxide Activation by a Sacrificial Anode: Comparison of Two Exchange Membranes

Divided electrochemical reactors allow the design of strategies to take advantage of the two reactions of the redox pair involved for wastewater treatment. Nafion membranes are the most used separators in these cells. These membranes have demonstrated high efficiency, but their high costs make the process more expensive. The present work focuses on the evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of replacing the Nafion 117® membrane with a commercial polymeric membrane used in reverse osmosis (RO) treatments. In this study, a divided electrochemical cell was constructed with electrodes made of galvanized steel. The Fenton reaction was developed in the anode compartment using electrogenerated iron as a catalyst. An experimental design 23 was used to study the influence of three operating parameters (initial H2O2, membrane, voltage) on the H2O2 activation kinetics. The results demonstrated that the activation of H2O2 followed a pseudo-zero-order kinetic. The maximum rate constants obtained for Nafion 117® and RO membrane were 2.76 mM min−1 and 2.45 mM min−1, respectively. The optimization of H2O2 activation process was performed using a response surface methodology, where multiple regression models were used to figure out the best operation conditions when using both membranes. Finally, an extensive cost analysis of the process is included.