The study on the effect of hydrodynamic flow on the photocatalytic performance of photocatalytic reactors

Abstract

The scalability of photocatalytic reactor is the major challenge due to the inability of the light penetration when the laboratory scale reactors are ascended. It is well known that characteristic length of photocatalytic reactor is one of the in uential parameters determining the e ciency of light penetration and also affects the hydrodynamic uid ow behavior inside the reactor. This study visualizes hydrodynamic ow behavior of three differently con gured photocatalytic reactors through numerical simulation of the uid mass transport inside the reactors. The three photocatalytic reactors are 1.Concentric cylindrical glass tube micro-reactor (CGTR), 2. UV-LED strip photocatalytic reactor (STR) and 3. Classical annular reactor (CAR) from our previous work. The simulations of ow behavior con rmed that CGTR exhibited plug ow regime, STR exhibited arbitrary ow (in-between continuously stirred tank reactor and plug ow reactor) and CAR behaved like continuously stirred tank reactor. Also interpretations of numerical modelling were validated through plotting experimental residence time distribution curve.Further, the comparison of performance parameters revealed that the highest modi ed Space Time Yield (STY modi ed ) 225 s − 1 and highest modi ed Photocatalytic Space Time Yield (PSTY modi ed ) 9.375 s − 1 /kW/m 3 was obtained for plug ow reactor when compared to continuously stirred tank reactor (CAR) and arbitrary ow reactor (STR). The study con rms that decrease in characteristic length of photocatalytic reactor onsets plug ow regime, which has highest photocatalytic performance e ciency.