Photocatalytic degradation of furfural by titania nanoparticles in a floating-bed photoreactor

In this research, an attempt was made to investigate the potential of nanophotocatalysts for treatment of hazardous wastewater streams. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (as photocatalyst) were immobilized on a porous and low-density support called “perlite” using a very simple and inexpensive method. TiO2-coated perlite granules were used in a “Floating-bed photoreactor” to study the photocatalytic purification process of a typical wastewater polluted by furfural.The effects of initial concentration, catalyst mass/solution volume ratio, oxidant molar flow, residence time, and light intensity on process removal efficiency, and kinetics of the reactions were studied.SEM analyses showed a properly uniform distribution of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on perlite granules. HPLC analyses of the photocatalytic treatment experiments of water streams synthetically polluted with furfural showed a fairly good performance for the immobilized catalyst.A furfural concentration reduction of more than 95% was observed within 120 min. Kinetics of the reaction, strongly depends on pollutant concentration in the solution and mass diffusion phenomenon seems to be the controlling step.