Current losses in a bipolar cell-II: An analysis of the Butler-Volmer regime

Abstract The effects of anodic and cathodic overvoltages given by Butler–Volmer expressions on the determination of bypass parasitic currents are studied in detail, as a function of several design parameters like the bypass resistance and the number of plates as well as other electrochemical parameters like the cell current, the anodic/cathodic exchange currents and the transfer coefficients. The failure of Tafel approximation in the middle plates (even when the cell current is large) is illustrated. Exact expressions for an approximate model are compared with our calculations.