High concentration propane depletion with photocatalysis

Abstract

Our work is aimed at studying the abatement of volatile organic compounds produced by photocatalysts working in different light spectra, investigating the best catalyst able to treat propane in air mixtures at high concentrations of the order of thousands of ppm. The experimental data were analyzed in order to extract the relevant parameters and to compare the catalytic activities of three different photocatalysts, TiO2, WO3, and their mixtures. In a reactor box of 1.5 l, photocatalysis processing with TiO2 catalysts gave the best propane depletion of the order of 10% for initial propane concentrations of up to 5000 ppm after 22 min and UV-A lamps with an intensity of 0.4 mW/cm2 while the TiO2 and WO3 catalysts produced an abatement of about 5% after 22 min using UV-C light at an intensity of 5 × 102 mW/cm2.

Pentane Depletion by a Surface DBD and Catalysis Processing

“…Transition metal oxide catalysts in combi-nation with plasma have attracted growing interest for pollution abatement because of their comparable performance and low cost. In our previous work, we found that the TiO 2 and/or WO 3 catalysts alone are not able to efficiently remove propane [31], while here, we managed to increase the pentane depletion by using plasma together with a catalyst, thus yielding an efficient abatement of the intermediate reaction products.…”

“…In fact, our previous study [31] demonstrated a much lower abatement efficiency for propane, performed by catalysis processing and using only UV-A light energy. In the case of TiO 2 , we used light with a UV-A range of 340-400 nm and a peak at 370 nm to obtain an efficiency of less than 10% of the abatement after 22 min of application [31,32].…”

“…In fact, our previous study [31] demonstrated a much lower abatement efficiency for propane, performed by catalysis processing and using only UV-A light energy. In the case of TiO 2 , we used light with a UV-A range of 340-400 nm and a peak at 370 nm to obtain an efficiency of less than 10% of the abatement after 22 min of application [31,32]. As previously reported in our studies, the UV-A power emitted by our SDBD was very low, from 20 to 600 times less bright in comparison with the typical UV-A lamps used for catalytic processing [33].…”