[Lex Moen]

I am working on electrolysis of seawater. at the anode I get hypochlorite. How harmful is it to simply let it flow back to the sea ( I use the hydrogengas from the cathode), hypochlorite disappears quickly I suppose, or else, how can I neutralise this substance?

[Arkcon]

You're definitely going to kill living things directly in the path of your effluent.  The sodium hypochlorite will eventually outgas Cl2, and be a solution of chlorine in seawater, and then outgas some more, and become a NaOH solution, which is also out of the pH range of many living things.  You could neutralize the NaOH with HCl, except ... where will you get it?

On the experimental scale, this is probably a reasonable dilution to make in the ocean.  But at any sort of semi-practical scale, you have a serious environmental problem on your hands.  Even a small home scale will greatly affect the local enviorment, and people will notice a suddenly algae free stretch of beach.

[Lex Moen]

ok - just back into the sea is a bad idea. any idea what i could do to neutralize the hypochlorite?

I read about two ways the hypochlorite can de compose:

2NaOCl  => 2NaCl  +  O2     and   3NaOCl  => NaClO3 + 2NaCl

what can I do to favour the oxygenproducingreaction?

wikipedia says:  " Hypochlorites decompose in sunlight, giving chlorides and oxygen." what do i need in light to let this reaction happen? that would solve the problem, I think

[Jasim]

Why consider it a waste? Why not use it all. There are applications for hypochlorite or it's derivatives such as chlorine and oxygen.

At the very least you could look into selling it to someone who would use it. Then it's their problem and you made some extra cash.

[Lex Moen]

o, I will certainly look into the possibilities, but one of the uses will be in remote areas with little infrastructure, so first solve the toxicity problem would be fine, i certainly would have a use for oxygen, so knowing more about the circumstances to convert hypochlorite into oxygen using sunlight would be nice