Degradation of Volatile Hydrocarbons Using Continuous-Flow Photocatalytic Systems with Enhanced Catalytic Surface Areas

Jo, Wan-Kuen; Yang, Sung-Hoon; Shin, Seung-Ho; Yang, Sung-Bong

doi:2011.16.2.91

Environmental Engineering Research 2011;16(2): 91-96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4491/eer.2011.16.2.91

Degradation of Volatile Hydrocarbons Using Continuous-Flow Photocatalytic Systems with Enhanced Catalytic Surface Areas

Wan-Kuen Jo¹^†, Sung-Hoon Yang¹, Seung-Ho Shin¹, and Sung-Bong Yang²

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea
²Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Science, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Korea

Corresponding Author: Wan-Kuen Jo ,Tel: +82-53-950-6584, Fax: +82-53-950-6579, Email: wkjo@knu.ac.kr

Received: March 22, 2011; Accepted: May 11, 2011.

ABSTRACT

Limited information is available on the degradation of volatile hydrocarbons determined via the use of plate-inserted photocatalytic reactors. This has led to the evaluation of surface areas of cylindrical continuous-flow photocatalytic reactors for the degradation of three selected aromatic hydrocarbons. Three types of reactors were prepared: a double cylinder-type, a single cylindrical-type without plates and a single cylindrical-type with inserted glass tubes. According to diffuse reflectance, FTIR and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, the surface characteristics of a coated photocatalyst were very similar to those of raw TiO<sub>2</sub>, thereby suggesting that the coated photocatalyst exhibited the same photocatalytic activity as the raw TiO<sub>2</sub>. The photocatalytic degradation efficiencies were significantly or slightly higher for the single cylinder-type reactor than for the double cylinder-type reactor which had a greater catalytic surface area. However, for all target compounds, the degradation efficiencies increased gradually when the number of plates was increased. Accordingly, it was suggested that the surface area being enhanced for the plate-inserted reactor would elevate the photocatalytic degradation efficiency effectively. In addition, this study confirmed that both initial concentrations of target compounds and flow rates were important parameters for the photocatalytic removal mechanism of these plate-inserted photocatalytic reactors.

Keywords: Double cylinder-type | Operational condition | Plate | Spectroscopy | Single cylinder-type