High photocatalytic efficiency of spouting reactor compared with fluidized bed with top irradiation source

•Spouted bed and fluidized bed in photocatalytic degradation of VOCs were designed.•Efficiencies of spouted and fluidized beds in photocatalytic degradation of VOCs were compared.•N-F co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized and used as photocatalyst.•At the same WHSV, spouted bed reactor more efficiently removed acetaldehyde than fluidized bed.

The removal of volatile organic compounds by photocatalytic degradation is one of the safest and most effective ways of removing pollutants from the air. This process is highly affected by the type of reactor, light exposure, and hydrodynamics. For scale up purposes, continuous reactors with high capacity are required for treating large amounts of feedstock. In this work, two types of reactors based on different hydrodynamics, fluidized and spouted reactors, were designed to work under light irradiation inside the reactor. The efficiency of the reactors for volatile organic compound removal from high flow rates of air under Hg lamp irradiation using N-F-TiO2 photocatalyst was investigated. The performance of the fluidized bed and spouted bed were evaluated and compared at the same weight hourly space velocity of feed stream through the reactor. The results revealed that 80% of the initial acetaldehyde was removed in the fluidized bed after about 200 min, while in the spouted bed the acetaldehyde was totally removed after about 120 min.

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