Study of a Novel Corrugated Photocatalytic Reactor for Indoor Pollution Abatement

CLAUDIO PASSALIA

Encuentro; EPOA 5 – V Encontro sobre Aplicações Ambientais de Processos Oxidativos Avançados; 2009

Instituto de Química da Universidade de Sao Paulo

Introduction Over the past decades, environmental pollution became a paramount topic regarding life quality and development styles. In this sense, a special concern needs to be put on indoor pollution, as people spent most of their time in confined environments. An effective way to eliminate organic pollutants from an air stream is through a photocatalytic reaction, a process which involves the application of UV radiation to photosensitize a catalyst, leading to a series of superficial reactions that can mineralize completely the undesired pollutant. Objectives This works aims at the study of the experimental behavior of a new corrugated wall reactor coated with titanium dioxide for the photocatalytic oxidation of a typical indoor pollutant. The obtained data will serve for the validation of a rigorous reactor model using a CFD tool. Methodology The model compound chosen for the study is formaldehyde (HCHO), a simple, ever-present airborne pollutant of confined places. A kinetic study on the photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous HCHO over TiO2 was carried out in a simple geometry reactor*. The main result of this study was the estimation of a set of kinetic parameters, based on a proposed kinetic mechanism, the absorbed radiation and a mass balance for the reactor. Reaction rate is linearly dependent on radiation level and the effect of increasing water vapor is slightly unfavorable, while the dependence with HCHO concentration is well described by a Langmuir-Hinshelwood type expression.