CO2 conversion in a photocatalytic continuous membrane reactor

The reduction of CO2 with water by using photocatalysts is one of the most promising new methods for achieving CO2 conversion to valuable hydrocarbons such as methanol (MeOH). In this work, prepared TiO2-Nafion (TM)-based membranes were used in a photocatalytic membrane reactor, operated in continuous mode, for converting CO2 to methanol. By using the membrane with the best TiO2 distribution, a MeOH flow rate/TiO2 weight of 45 mu mol (g(catalyst) h)(-1) was measured when operating at 2 bar of feed pressure. This value is higher than those reported in most of the literature data to date. Moreover, methanol production is considered as a relevant advance over the existing literature results wh…

Study on a photocatalytic membrane reactor for water purification

Abstract Some results obtained in a photocatalytic membrane reactor, to be used for degradation of toxic organic species dissolved in water, are reported. The catalyst, TiO 2 P25 Degussa, was immobilised by means of a flat sheet polymeric membrane and 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) was used as a model molecule to evaluate the reactor performance. A preliminary investigation of the stability, under UV irradiation, of some eligible polymeric membranes was carried out by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy (OM), determinations of water permeation flux (WPF) and total organic carbon (TOC). These tests showed that commercial membranes made of fluoride + PP (FS 50 PP-Dow), polysulp…

Photocatalytic Nanofiltration Reactors

An ultrathin suspended hydrophobic porous membrane for high-efficiency water desalination

Abstract An ultrathin highly fluorinated porous membrane was designed for a large production of desalted water at very low energy consumption. Imprinting water droplets were used through a low thermally conductive tetra-fluoroethylene (TFE)/2,2,4-trifluoro-5-tri-fluorometoxy-1,3-dioxol (TIT) (HYFLON AD 60) solution and the generated porous nanofilm was suspended onto a polyethersulfone (PES) honeycomb texture. The very tiny fluorinated thickness together with a large number of small-shaped pores provided the membrane for enhanced anti-wetting surface properties, extremely reduced resistance to water vapor transfer and outstanding thermal efficiency. Fine materials structure-transport relati…

Photocatalytic membrane reactors for degradation of organic pollutants in water

Abstract Different flowsheets (batch and continuous) of photocatalytic membrane reactors, to be used for degradation of organic pollutants present in water, together to some experimental results, are reported. 4-Nitrophenol (4NP) was used as a probe polluting agent and titanium dioxide in suspension was the catalyst. The photodegradation tests in the batch system were carried out without membrane changing the characteristic variables of the process (light intensity, TiO 2 concentration, 4NP concentration, O 2 concentration, pH) to find their optimum values. The batch system consisted of a water jacket thermostatted and stirred beaker irradiated from above with a UV–Vis lamp (light intensity…

Hybrid processes coupling photocatalysis and membranes for degradation of organic pollutants in water

Abstract Tests of degradation in a photocatalytic membrane system with the lamp immersed in the suspension inside the photoreactor have been carried out by using polycrystalline TiO2 (Degussa P25) as catalyst and humic acids, organic dyes, 4-nitrophenol as pollutants. The influence of the type of nanofiltration membrane, initial concentration of pollutant and pH on the photodegradation rate was investigated in discontinuous and continuous configurations. Two membranes were tested, i.e. NF-PES-010 (Celgard, Germany) of polyethersulphone and NTR-7410 (Nitto-Denko, Japan) of sulphonated polyethersulphone. The last one was chosen for all of the photoreactivity experiments because permeability a…

Studies on various reactor configurations for coupling photocatalysis and membrane processes in water purification

General aspects and perspectives of heterogeneous photocatalysis for the treatment of polluted aqueous effluents are presented. Some experimental results obtained by using various configurations of photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) are reported. The configurations studied were: (i) irradiation of the cell containing the membrane, with three sub-cases: (i1) catalyst deposited on the membrane; (i2) catalyst in suspension, confined by means of the membrane; (i3) entrapment of the photocatalyst in a PSF membrane; (ii) irradiation of the re-circulation tank and catalyst in suspension confined by means of the membrane. In the case “(i)”, a preliminary investigation of membrane stability und…