Low temperature thermally regenerative electrochemical system
First Claim
1. An electrochemical system comprising an electrochemical cell having first and second electrodes and two compartments separated by an ion exchange membrane and containing first and second water-based electrolytes in respective contact with said first and second electrodes, at least one of the first and second electrolytes containing a complexing agent and a salt of a multivalent metal whose respective order of potentials for first and second redox couples in water are reversed by the addition of said complexing agent in an amount sufficient to cause said reversal, said agent being present in at least said amount, said one electrolyte being converted to a third electrolyte in the operation of the cell, and means for regenerating said first or second electrolyte from said third electrolyte in a sequence of steps, said regeneration means including thermal means for removing at least a portion of said complexing agent from said third electrolyte to reverse the order of said potentials and form a fourth electrolyte and means for adding said complexing agent to a fifth electrolyte derived from said electrolytes in said cell to form said first or second electrolyte.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A thermally regenerative electrochemical system including an electrochemical cell with two water-based electrolytes separated by an ion exchange membrane, at least one of the electrolytes containing a complexing agent and a salt of a multivalent metal whose respective order of potentials for a pair of its redox couples is reversible by a change in the amount of the complexing agent in the electrolyte, the complexing agent being removable by distillation to cause the reversal.
86 Citations
18 Claims
- 1. An electrochemical system comprising an electrochemical cell having first and second electrodes and two compartments separated by an ion exchange membrane and containing first and second water-based electrolytes in respective contact with said first and second electrodes, at least one of the first and second electrolytes containing a complexing agent and a salt of a multivalent metal whose respective order of potentials for first and second redox couples in water are reversed by the addition of said complexing agent in an amount sufficient to cause said reversal, said agent being present in at least said amount, said one electrolyte being converted to a third electrolyte in the operation of the cell, and means for regenerating said first or second electrolyte from said third electrolyte in a sequence of steps, said regeneration means including thermal means for removing at least a portion of said complexing agent from said third electrolyte to reverse the order of said potentials and form a fourth electrolyte and means for adding said complexing agent to a fifth electrolyte derived from said electrolytes in said cell to form said first or second electrolyte.
- 14. A method of converting thermal energy to electrical energy comprising the steps of providing an electrochemical cell having first and second electrodes and two compartments separated by an ion exchange membrane and containing first and second water-based electrolytes in respective contact with said first and second electrodes, at least one of the first and second electrolytes containing a complexing agent and a salt of a multivalent metal whose respective order of potentials for first and second redox couples in water are reversed by the addition of said complexing agent in an amount sufficient to cause said reversal, said agent being present in at least said amount, operating said cell to produce electrical energy and convert one electrolyte to a third electrolyte, and regenerating said first or second electrolyte from said third electrolyte including the steps of thermally removing at least a portion of said complexing agent from said third electrolyte to a value below said amount to reverse the order of said potentials to form a fourth electrolyte and adding said complexing agent to a fifth electrolyte derived from said electrolytes in said cell to form said first or second electrolyte.
Specification