Analysis of an axially irradiated cylindrical photoreactor—I. plug flow model

Radiative transfer and batch photochemical reaction in a plane slab

“…In the mathematical modeling of a photochemical process the radiant energy balance equation and the mass balance equation of the reacting species are therefore coupled any time that absorption occurs by the reacting species (Magelli and Santarelli, 1978; Bhattacharya and Deshpande, 1979;Spadoni et al, 1980a). When this coupling occurs a very complex system of equations results and getting the solution is a very hard task, even under the assumption of isothermal conditions within the reactor.…”

“…On the other side, photochemical reactions have never been considered but rigorous approaches have been developed to the solution of purely radiative transfer problems (Chandrasekhar, 1950; Beach et al, 1971;Santarelli et al, 1980). Only few contributions are therefore available for a correct analysis of photochemical processes where the absorption of the radiant energy occurs by the reacting species itself; most of them (Magelli and Santarelli, 1978;Spadoni et al, 1980a) rely on a fully numerical approach, while a quasi-analytical solution has been given for the simple case of a tubular photoreactor lighted by an axially collimated radiation (Bhattacharya and Deshpande, 1979). Such a photoreaction is considered here, assuming the reaction to occur in a batch way within a plane slab and taking into 1 Istituto Impianti Chimici.…”