Means and method for providing two chemical products from electrolytes

A method comprising the steps of:

• locating an anode in an anode chamber of a reaction cell,
• locating a cathode in a cathode chamber of the reaction cell,
• separating the cathode chamber from the anode chamber by an ionic transfer membrane,
• providing nitrogen as a sparging gas to the anode chamber of the reaction cell,
• providing a mixture of tetrabutylammonium perchlorate and methanol as an anolyte to the anode chamber,
• providing oxygen as a sparging gas to the cathode chamber of the reaction cell,
• providing a mixture of methanol, benzene and tetrabutylammonium perchlorate as a catholyte to the cathode chamber of the reaction cell,
• applying a DC voltage across the anode and the cathode thereby forming dimethoxymethane in the anolyte and phenol in the catholyte,
• removing dimethoxymethane from the reacted anolyte, and
• removing phenol from the reacted catholyte.