Electrolytic cell

Claim 1

An electrolytic cell which comprises: a cell tank adapted to contain an electrolyte and having two side walls, two arcuate end walls and a bottom; adjacent to each arcuate end wall an impeller casing extending vertically to the bottom of the tank and having an arcuate inner surface, which faces the arcuate end wall; a substantially centrally disposed baffle extending horizontally between the two impeller casings and vertically to the bottom of the tank; an impeller rotatably disposed within each of said impeller casings; means for rotating each of said impellers and imparting a recirculating flow to said electrolyte in the cell around the centrally disposed baffle; in each space between the centrally disposed baffle and an adjacent side wall at least one removable cathode disposed parallelly with the centrally disposed baffle and with said side wall, each cathode having two vertical surfaces and two vertical side edges; on each side of a cathode an anode parallelly and equidistantly spaced from said cathode, each anode having two vertical surfaces and two vertical side edges; vertical non-conductive vanes disposed unattachedly from those vertical side edges of said cathode and of any anode interspaced between two cathodes, which side edges face the direction of flow of the recirculating electrolyte, said vanes extending partially towards the arcuate end walls of the tank; positioning adjustment means for said vanes to substantially proportion the flow of recirculating electrolyte through each of the channels formed by adjacent anodes and cathodes, and means for electrically energizing the cell.