As the bench-scale photoreactors are upscaled to progressively larger units, heat and mass transfer considerations become increasingly important. Powerful analytical and computational techniques are available to augment experimental data and aid process optimization and scale up. In this paper, the analytical and computational techniques available for the design of vapor-phase photocatalytic reactors are discussed. First, the Graetz- Nusselt-Leveque problem in annuli is analyzed and its application to the design of the photocatalytic reactors described. Then, the analytical predications are compared to experimental flow reactor data. Finally, results from a Computational Fluid Dynamics program simulating a flow field within an annular baffled photoreactor are given and discussed. These techniques are particularly useful as they simplify the design and scale-up of vapor-phase photocatalytic reactors.
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