The kinetic modeling of the photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde a major indoor pollutant in air using an experimental catalytic wall continuous reactor is addressed. A stainless steel flat plate coated with titanium dioxide was placed within the reactor, over which flows an air stream with a known concentration of formaldehyde. The energy source for the ultraviolet radiation that initiates the degradation reactions is provided by a group of five black light lamps next to the reactor window. An analytical expression for the photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde in air is proposed, based on published literature on accepted reaction mechanisms. Once the kinetic control regime for the reactor was determined, experiments were conducted by the variation of the three operating variables that influence the reaction rate: the inlet formaldehyde concentration, the relative humidity and the level of radiation. A non-linear expression resulting from the combination of a mass balance for formaldehyde and the rate expression were used to estimate the kinetic parameters. The photocatalytic oxidation process for the removal of formaldehyde in air proved to be feasible and efficient under the operating conditions analyzed.
Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a suitable technology for eliminating indoor pollutants at low concentration ranges. In this work we deal with the modeling and experimental evaluation of a continuous, single-pass, corrugated plate photocatalytic reactor for elimination of gaseous formaldehyde in air. The reactor configuration consists of a corrugated stainless steel plate coated with titanium dioxide catalyst, irradiated from both sides with UV lamps. The complete modeling of the reactor was achieved by means of a commercial CFD tool. Nonetheless, the radiative transfer within the reactor was modeled externally, considering the lamps emission and the radiative interaction between reactor windows and catalytic walls by the computation of view factors. The reaction kinetics was also imposed externally from previous determined parameters. The conditions of the experimental runs were replicated in the computational simulations. Model predictions of the formaldehyde overall conversion showed good agreement with experiments, with a root-mean-square error less than 4%.
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