Impact of design parameters on the performance of ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation air cleaner

• PCO performance was investigated for different types of lamps and catalyst substrates.
• Generated by-products depend on the presence of ozone and operational conditions.
• VUV lamps promote photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol compared to UVC lamps.
• Acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and propionaldehyde are formed by both UVC and VUV lamps.
• Crotonaldehyde is generated only in the presence of VUV lamps and ozone.

Ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation (UV-PCO) is regarded as one of the promising technologies for air purification. Previous studies on UV-PCO of ethanol were performed in an ideal bench top reactors. However, this research is focused on UV-PCO of ethanol in full-scale open test rig which closely resembles the real application of this technology. Ethanol mineralization was investigated under several conditions including two types of UV-lamps (UVC and VUV) for two different photocatalysts under varied concentrations, airflow rate and relative humidity. In each case, removal efficiency and by-products yield were compared. Furthermore, possible mechanism for by-product formation is presented. Experimental results show that acetaldehyde and formaldehyde are the main by-products of ethanol. VUV lamps increase photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol compared to UVC lamps. The increase of relative humidity decreases UV-PCO of ethanol using both VUV and UVC lamps; however, the yield of by-products in the presence of VUV lamps increases while it decreases in the presence of UVC lamps. Higher flow rate results lower removal efficiency and consequently formation of less by-products. Improvement of reaction section by increasing the number of reactors leads to higher ethanol removal efficiency, less partial oxidation, lower amount of by-products and the complete mineralization of acetaldehyde.