Two-dimensional modeling of an externally irradiated slurry photoreactor

Abstract

A batch cylindrical photocatalytic reactor, externally irradiated by one-to-six UV fluorescent lamps and containing a stirred slurry of polycrystalline TiO2, was modeled by coupling a modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics together with a two-dimensional light intensity field. The radiation field has been determined on the main assumptions of diffuse radiation, isotropic scattering and negligible backward reflected photon flow. The model has been applied to the photocatalytic oxidation of organic substrates which do not undergo homogeneous photochemical degradation. The model is characterized by the following four parameters: the kinetic constants of substrate adsorption, desorption and degradation and the exponent of the power law expressing the kinetics dependence on the light intensity. The model constants may be determined by applying a simple least-squares best fitting procedure.