Two-compartment bipolar membrane electrodialysis for splitting of sodium formate into formic acid and sodium hydroxide: Modelling

The aim of this work is to model the two-compartment bipolar membrane electrodialysis for organic salts acidification. The salt studied is sodium formate which splits into formic acid and sodium hydroxide thanks to water splitting by bipolar membrane. The contamination of sodium hydroxide by formate ion is due to diffusion of molecular formic acid through the bipolar membrane and to leakage of formate ion through the same membrane under the applied current. The cation-exchange membrane does not participate to contamination of sodium hydroxide. But the leakage of hydroxide ion through the cation-exchange membrane is the major factor influencing the current efficiency of electrodialysis. The average current efficiency decreases with time principally because the sodium hydroxide concentration increases.