화학공학소재연구정보센터
Solar Energy, Vol.56, No.5, 445-453, 1996
Selective photocatalytic destruction of airborne VOCs
This article describes a photocatalytic method for selective oxidation of the airborne nitroglycerine (NG), in the presence of ethanol and acetone vapors at high concentrations (exceeding 1% by volume). Process selectivities toward NG photooxidation were examined for various photoreactor configurations and UV lamps and techniques used for the photocatalyst preparation. In addition, we have studied the effect of temperature, residence time, various additives (e.g. ozone, water vapor, nitrogen), and initial concentration of the solvents in air. Our data indicate that modifying TiO2 with silico-tungstic acid (STA) catalyst results in selective NG oxidation without affecting ethanol and acetone significantly. Platinization of TiO2 showed an adverse effect on NG destruction selectivity. In general, low residence times and initial concentration of oxidants and high temperatures and initial concentration of solvents favor selectivity toward NG destruction. In the case of temperature, our observation can be explained by the temperature dependent gas diffusion and surface processes. In most cases, the yield of ethanol oxidation was generally higher than that of acetone. Results from the bench-scale experiments using artificial UV light sources were used to build and test a solar photocatalytic oxidation reactor for selective NG treatment in the presence of ethanol and acetone.