Despite considerable progress over the past decade, over 2 billion people still lack access to safely managed water services. Because drinking water infrastructure is challenging in low-income and rural settings where this imparity is most prevalent, low-cost point-of-use disinfection systems are an attractive option for achieving further progress in drinking water access. Electrochlorinators (ECs) offer an easily scalable and adaptable alternative to traditional POU disinfection systems. Despite the advantages of ECs, the need for users to frequently add salt to the device may hinder adoption of this technology. The purpose of this study was to develop an EC that operates independent of additional chemical inputs. To convert the low concentration of chloride in source waters to HOCl, an anion exchange membrane was positioned between electrodes to create distinct chambers. By providing continuous water flow through the catholyte while operating the anolyte in batch mode, chloride was concentrated into the anolyte, where it was converted into chlorine. This novel design was compared to other cell configurations to demonstrate its effectiveness under variable solution conditions. The cell successfully concentrated chloride into the anolyte, resulting in chlorine production rates 27% faster and an overall energy consumption 20% lower than those of an analogous undivided cell. Additionally, the separated configuration resulted in a ClO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> production rate nearly 50% slower than that of the undivided cell. The results indicated efficacy for use with typical groundwater sources.

Membrane-assisted electrochlorination for zero-chemical-input point-of-use drinking water disinfection

ACS Fall 2021

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