A TAYLOR VORTEX REACTOR FOR HETEROGENEOUS PHOTOCATALYSIS

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a promising advanced oxidation process for water purification. One of the limitations in photocatalysis has been inherently low photoefficiencies. Recent studies show that the ph otoefficiency of formate decomposition can be increased through the us e of controlled periodic illumination. In this study, a Taylor vortex reactor was designed, constructed and tested as a novel photocatalytic reactor that incorporated illumination and dark recovery times via fl uid mixing. A combination of the vortex motion and the limited light p enetration depth into the photocatalytic slurry allowed the photocatal yst particles to move into and out of the illuminated portion of the r eactor. The photoefficiency in the reactor increased by nearly a facto r of three with the optimal conditions of an inner cylinder rotation r ate of 300 rpm and an unusually high weight loading of 10 g/l of TiO2 photocatalyst.