Photocatalytic inactivation of airborne bacterial spores in a fixed-bed reactor. Radiation absorption calculations.

ZACARIAS, S.M.; PIROLA, S.; MANASSERO, A.; ALFANO, O.M.; SATUF, M.L.

Conferencia; 10th European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications (SPEA10); 2018

Thephotocatalytic inactivation of Bacillus subtilis spores in air was studiedemploying an annular, fixed-bed reactor filled with TiO2-coated glass rings.Experiments were carried out under artificial UV radiation. Calculations of theradiation effectively absorbed inside the reactor were carried out by MonteCarlo simulations. Two efficiency parameters were computed to assess thereactor performance: the photonic efficiency and the quantum efficiency ofinactivation. The initial concentration of spores was reduced by almost one orderof magnitude at the end of the experiment (5 h). Results of the efficiencyparameters allow an objective comparison of the reactor performance underdifferent experimental conditions and configurations.