Photocatalytic reactors for environmental remediation: a review

Abstract

Research in the field of photocatalytic reactors in the past three decades has been an area of extensive and diverse activity with an extensive range of suspended and fixed film photocatalyst configurations being reported. The key considerations for photocatalytic reactors, however, remain the same; effective mass transfer of pollutants to the photocatalyst surface and effective deployments and illumination of the photocatalyst. Photocatalytic reactors have the potential versatility to be applied to the remediation of a range of water and gaseous effluents. Furthermore they have also been applied to the treatment of potable waters. The scale‐up of photocatalytic reactors for waste and potable water treatment plants has also been demonstrated. Systems for the reduction of carbon dioxide to fuel products have also been reported. This paper considers the main photocatalytic reactor configurations that have been reported to date. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry

Titanium compounds and their impact on the transformation of air pollutants

“…However, their application is a matter of discussion. Moreover, the application of semiconductors in photocatalysis for remediation has real scope for impacting water pollution and, hence, global water scarcity (McCullagh et al 2011). Adams et al (2008) have reported the comparison of a standard flat plate reactor with a novel drum reactor (Robertson et al 2004) for the removal of organic (oil and gas hydrocarbons) contaminants from the water.…”

“…Such a high level of reduction over a short period of time is attributed to samples passing through 3 consecutive drums, each with 200 g of TiO 2 catalyst present. Therefore, 600 g of catalyst are utilized for the entire system (Adams et al 2008, McCullagh et al 2011. It is important to understand that there is no sense in applying these kinds of catalysts in doses exceeding those confirmed effective by research.…”

From Ideal Reactor Concepts to Reality: The Novel Drum Reactor for Photocatalytic Wastewater Treatment

“…In order to fully assess the potential of photocatalysis as a water purification method, consideration needs to be given to the reactor unit in which the photocatalyst is deployed. There are a number of issues that need to be considered when designing a reactor to be employed for the photocatalytic purification of water [2]. A key parameter influencing the water treatment capability of the photocatalytic reactor is the quantity of catalyst that can be activated [3].…”

Microfluidic reactors for visible-light photocatalytic water purification assisted with thermolysis

“…Therefore, many types of photocatalytic reactors have been designed for water treatment, but they are still facing enormous challenge and difficulties. [1][2][3][4] Microfluidics may find potential uses for photocatalysis but such application area remains merely a virgin land until recently. [5][6][7] The great success of microfluidics in many applications such as chemical analysis, biomedical assay, and drug screening has well demonstrated its remarkable capabilities in dealing with particles, fluids, and light in an integrated platform.…”