Photocatalytic reactor with TiO2 coated glass fiber meshes. Degradation of trichloroethylene in an air stream

ESTERKIN, C.R.; NEGRO, A.C.; ALFANO, O.M.; CASSANO, A.E.

Barcelona

Congreso; SPEA3. 3rd European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications; 2004

Sociedad Española de Química Industrial e Ingeniería Química

In a previous paper, the modeling and experimental verification of the radiation field inside a reactor made of several TiO2 coated, flat glass fiber meshes, bilaterally UV irradiated was accomplished [1]. In this work, the degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in an air stream is studied using different values of the pollutant feed concentration, relative humidity and light intensity under operating conditions where kinetic control of the process is established. A kinetic model based on a reaction scheme that involves atomic chlorine as an active reaction intermediate is developed for describing concentration dependencies. It includes, explicitly, the effect of the absorbed light intensity on the rate. The interaction of the existing radiation field with the solid semiconductor to generate electrons and holes in the reaction catalyst activation step is also modeled. All kinetic parameters are estimated from experiments.