Design of photocatalytic reactors made easy by considering the photons as immaterial reactants

G. CAMERA-RODA, F. SANTARELLI AND C. MARTIN

SOLAR ENERGY

Año: 2005 vol. 79 p. 343 - 352

0038-092X

While it is quite obvious that photons have an essential role in photochemical and photocatalytic processes, it is notsimple to analyse the radiation process.A simple approach is presented on the assumption that photons can be treated as immaterial reactants. It is thenpossible to evaluate the radiation process in terms of parameters such as conversion, selectivity and yield, which arecommon in the conventional reaction engineering, and of an additional parameter, a volume efficiency factor, whichaccounts for the exploitation of the reaction volume as the result of the inevitable attenuation of the radiation inthe transport through the participating medium.Attention has also been focused on the validation of kinetic data when, as it is usually done, they are interpreted interms of volume averages.Finally, guidelines have been prepared to support preliminary phases of analysis and/or design of a photocatalyticreactor.