ELECTROCHEMICAL CELL AND PROCESS

An electrochemical cell comprises a housing (1, 2) divided by a perforated generally horizontal plate (3) into an upper chamber (4) and a lower chamber (5). Bipolar electrodes (19, 21) are disposed in the upper chamber (4) above perforations (23) in the plate (3), between electrolyte inlet and outlet weirs (11, 13) for flowing electrolyte over the plate (3). The lower chamber (5) is a gas-supply chamber for passing a gas, e.g. propylene, up through the perforations (23), so as to bubble the gas through electrolyte (e.g. NaBr solutions) on the plate (3) and into the upper gas-collection chamber (4). A reactor may be formed by stacking several cells with their electrolyte flows in cascade. The cell is particularly suitable for electro-organic syntheses involving a gaseous reactant.