Development of Sustainable Technology to Mitigate VOCs Pollution from Air Using a Continuous System Composed of Fe-ZSM-5 Coated on Polypropylene Tubes Coupled with UV Irradiation at the Pilot Scale

Abstract

In this work, the efficacy of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, for the removal of indoor air in a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalytic semi pilot reactor was investigated at room temperature. Fe-zeolite socony mobil (ZSM)-5 was used as the adsorptive catalytic material, which was coated on the polyethylene tubes as a solid support. The response of Fe-ZSM-5 to UV dry irradiation was investigated in terms of VOC degradation from the indoor air. Different coating materials were tested in order to achieve better binding and less pore blockage. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs of the Fe-ZSM-5 coated tubes were used for the morphological analysis of the tubes. A complete modular semi pilot reactor (12.51 L) was designed to accommodate the Fe-ZSM-5 coated tubes and UV lamps for UV irradiation, in order to achieve the degradation for VOC and the regeneration of the catalytic material. After completion of the setup, the plant design parameters, such as the linear velocity, surface volume loading rate (SVL), and space retention time (SRT), were calculated.