With growing environmental awareness, the development of sustainable technology in
the postal field is of great research interest. In this place, microreactor systems have found
promising application possibilities. Microreactor systems are those that have at least one
dimension less than one millimeter. Due to the small amounts of chemicals required and
the high rate of heat and mass transfer, micro-level systems are particularly suitable for
reactions with flammable, explosive and toxic reactants, as they require the elimination
of side reactions and products, to achieve the maximum possible conversion and low
energy consumption.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the most powerful and commonly used oxidants. It
is an environmentally friendly oxidizer because the only oxidation byproduct is water.
H2O2 is used for various purposes, e.g., oxidation reactions, disinfection, bleaching,
wastewater treatment and in the electronics industry. The production of H2O2 takes place
mainly by the anthraquinone process. In this process, alkyl anthraquinone is hydrogenated
with H2 over a Pd catalyst to alkyl anthrahydroquinone, followed by autoxidation with O2
back to alkyl anthraquinone.
In addition to direct synthesis, a large amount of research has recently been carried out in
the field of electrochemistry and the possibility of using electrochemical production of
products. One of these products is hydrogen peroxide. The electrochemical production of
H2O2 takes place via an oxygen reduction reaction at the cathode. The reaction can
produce ferrous H2O2 via the 2-electron (2e-) pathway or H2O via the 4-electron (4e-)
pathway.
The master's thesis deals with the production of H2O2 by an electrochemical process, for
which an electrocatalyst was originally developed, which catalyzes the conversion of
water and oxygen to the desired product. The process is fastened by developing a
mathematical model and computer simulation, which enables a quick search for process
parameters that would require much more time with experimental measurements.
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