Optimal design and modeling of annular photocatalytic wall reactors

IMOBERDORF, G.E.; CASSANO, A.E.; IRAZOQUI, H.A.; ALFANO, O.M.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España

Congreso; 4th European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications - SPEA4; 2006

Photocatalysis has been proven to be an effective means to remove pollutants from water and air. However, the application of photocatalytic technologies for pollutants degradation at a commercial scale is currently hindered by a lack of physically based mathematical models that can be used for reactor design and optimization. It has been shown that photocatalytic wall reactors are highly efficient at eliminating volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from air streams. The purpose of the present work is to analyse the effect of the reactor design variables and configuration on the pollutant degradation efficiency. A complete reactor model was employed to predict the pollutant conversion. This mathematical model takes into account the concurrent phenomena of mass, momentum and radiative energy transfer. Perchloroethylene (PCE) was used as a model pollutant.