Revamp of existing lab-scale electrolytic cell design for electrolyzed water study in cleaning application

Abstract

The lab-scale electrolytic cell was designed to produce acidic and alkaline electrolyzed water for cleaning study. Electrolyzed water (EW) was produced by electrolysis of a dilute sodium chloride solution. The generation of free chlorine, pH and oxidation-reduction potential from the electrolysis process by the electrolytic cell were far from the expected value. Thus, the lab-scale electrolytic cell was revamped by using the acrylic slot to hold the electrode plate and a membrane holder without metal screws. This revamp work is to reduce the resistance for current flow with the aim to increase the value of chemical properties (pH, oxidation-reduction potential, free chlorine) for acidic and alkaline electrolyzed water. Findings have shown that the current was increased from 0.013A to 2.5A after the revamp process. As a result of the revamp, the value of pH, oxidation-reduction potential and free chlorine for acidic electrolyzed water was increased by 1.7 times, 2.7 times, and 20 times higher than previous results respectively. While for alkaline electrolyzed water, the value of pH and oxidation-reduction potential was increased by 1.4 times and 6.2 times higher than previous results respectively.