Experimental Study of a Photocatalytic Reactor for Trace Formaldehyde Removal

Formaldehyde is the key contaminant influencing building occupants＇ health in indoor environment. In order to reduce occupants＇ exposures to formaldehyde, a newly designed photocatalytic reactor was applied in a dynamic HVAC （heating, ventilation and air conditioning） system. The experiments were carried out for the removal of formaldehyde present in air at low parts per million （ppm） concentrations. The initial formaldehyde concentrations were set as 1.59 ppm and 0.27 ppm respectively, based on the formaldehyde levels in the polluted places. Experimental results show that the photocatalytic reactor is effective on formaldehyde photodegradation, causes a low pressure drop, and does not make the second pollution of ozone. The kinetic anaiysis indicates that the kinetics for oxidation processes can be fitted well by a pseudo-first-order kinetic model deduced from Langmuir - Hinshelwood （L-H） model.

Photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A using an integrated system of a new gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed reactor and micrometer Gd-doped TiO_2 particles

A new gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed photocatalytic reactor （GLSCFBPR） with internally placed multi-layered UV lamps was developed. Micrometer Gd-TiO2 particles and commercial nanometer P25-TiO2 were chosen as the photocatalysts, and the hazardous substance bisphenol A （BPA） was chosen as the model pollutant to investigate the performance of this new photocatalytic system. The results showed that the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the micrometer Gd-TiO2 particles was similar to that of the nanometer P-25 particles at their respective optimum dosage but the former could be easily separated out by gravity. After investigating the effects of process parameters on the photocatalytic BPA degradation, the response surface method （RSM） was further used for process optimization. The interactions among process parameters, i.e., TiO2 concentration, superficial gas velocity and superficial liquid velocity were discovered and a related analysis was carried out to explore the underlying mechanism. A quadratic mathematic model was established and performed satisfactorily when used for prediction. The optimum conditions for this new process were as follows： TiO2 concentration 4.5 g/L, superficial gas velocity 7.83 x 10-3 m/sec and superficial liquid velocity 8.65 x 10-3 m/sec.

Novel photocatalytic reactor for degradation of DDT in water and its optimization model

A novel photocatalytic reactor was developed to remove （1,1-bis（4-chlorophenyl）-2,2,2-trichloroethane） （DDT） from water. In the reactor, a cenosphere was used to support TiO2 film made by means of sol-gel. Because the cenospheres were coated with TiO2, their specific gravity was slightly increased from the original 0.6-0.8 to 0.8-0.9, so that they were able to be suspended in water. With the mixed operation of a bubbler, the water in the reactor was in a well-fluidized state. The bottom of the reactor is a sand filter bed, which can be used to prevent the photocatalyst from being lost. A mathematical model of the reactor has been developed in the two primary influential factors： ultraviolet （UV） light intensity and photocatalyst concentration. With such a model, the reactor can be designed more reasonably.