Electrochemical Manufacturing of Hydrogen Peroxide with High Concentration and Durability

Electrochemical manufacturing of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been widely recognized as an alternative to the conventional anthraquinone process, but the output H2O2 concentration that it can reach and the long-term electrolysis stability are still far from industrial requirements. Here, we report the promising potential of the porous solid electrolyte (PSE) reactor for producing high-concentration and high-purity H2O2 in high stability. By identifying the issue of high H2O2 concentration at the cathode/membrane interface that could lead to membrane degradation and low ORR Faradaic efficiencies (FEs), we adopted a water recirculation flow operation instead of continuous flow to effectively carry out the generated H2O2 product from the PSE layer without interfacial accumulation. This recirculation strategy boosted the H2O2 FE from 23% to 50% to produce a 30 wt % H2O2 stream and successfully extended the lifetime of the PSE reactor to ∼1000 h while continuously outputting 20 wt % H2O2 under 100 mA cm–2 operation current.