Electrochemical Manufacturing in the Chemical Industry

Abstract

There are over 100,000 chemicals in the marketplace, manufactured by various technological means. Despite this large number of chemicals available in the market, electrochemical synthesis of chemicals has been limited to a narrow spectrum. The reasons for this have been previously attributed to a lag in the education of chemists and engineers in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering, a lack of suitable resources for cell construction, and most importantly the prohibitive costs involved (in many cases) in electrochemical synthesis. However, over the past 40 years, there have been significant developments in electrochemical synthesis and methods due to the advances in materials science and nanotechnology, and progress in multi-scale modeling. The mainstays of electrochemical manufacturing (chlor-alkali industry, aluminum, organic synthesis) as well as new vistas of manufacturing are explored.