CFD Analysis of the Radiation Distribution in a New Immobilized Catalyst Bubble Column Externally Illuminated Photoreactor

Abstract

A new externally irradiated photoreactor configuration combining the excellent mass transfer characteristics of a bubble column operation with the separation power of an immobilized catalyst on quartz plates has been investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The radiative transport equation (RTE) in conjunction with the Navier-Stokes equations were solved to obtain the light incident radiative flux and the light absorbed by the immobilized titania as a function of the gas superficial velocity, the angle of inclination, and the separating distance between the plates. The model employed water and air as the fluid phases and the results indicated that gas bubbling considerably increased the incident radiation in the gas-liquid mixture enhancing the radiative flux and the absorbed radiation on the titania-coated plates. The CFD results pave the way for the optimization of a solar photocatalytic reactor for the degradation of organic pollutants.