Degradation of Emerging Pollutants by Photocatalysis: Radiation Modeling and Kinetics in Packed-Bed Reactors

Radiation modeling and kinetics in two different packed-bed reactors filled with TiO2-coated glass rings are presented. The first reactor was cylindrical, irradiated from one end by a 150 W mercury lamp. It was employed to obtain the values of the intrinsic kinetic parameters of the degradation of the emerging contaminant clofibric acid (CA). The expression to represent the kinetics of the pollutant was derived from a proposed reaction scheme, and it includes explicitly the effect of photon absorption rate on the reaction rate. The second reactor was annular, irradiated internally and externally by 40 UV-LED lamps. The kinetic parameters calculated in the first reactor were directly employed to simulate the performance of the second one, without using any adjustable parameter. The Monte Carlo method was applied to solve the radiation models in both reactors. Good agreement was obtained between simulation results and experimental data under different operating conditions, with a percentage root-mean-square error of 4.6%. The kinetic parameters proved to be independent of the irradiation source, reactor geometry, and catalyst film thickness, and can be readily applied to design real scale devices.