Author(s): Ronald Vargas, Elena Sanchez

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Natural time scales; Kinetic family; Photocatalysis; Water treatment; Hydraulic corrections;

Abstract: Parameter estimation of the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetic apply to the photocatalytically assisted water treatment is revisited. By analyzing the natural time scales (NTS) of a general catalytic cycle, we present a method to extract accurate and robust kinetic information based on the linear combination of functions where the weighted parameters were the time scales. The NTS of these phenomena are: (i) the fastest time to perform one run of the catalytic cycle, tfast=kK, and (ii) the slowest time it would take to chemically transform an initial amount of matter (C0), tslow=C0/k, where K is the interaction constant related to adsorption of the chemical compounds on the catalyst and k is the maximum reaction rate at the surface catalyst saturation. The benefits of the method have been demonstrated for the TiO2/UV(Solar) photocatalysis of naphthalene in a
tubular bench reactor (TBR). The dependence of the NTS with irradiance, flow rate/regime and concentration of the organic compound has been also evaluated. Additionally, we quantify the hydraulic and advectivetransport corrections to the k and K estimations by using a 3D high-resolution computational model of the TBR. The results clarify the relationship between a novel concept called kinetic family (KF) and the physical variables that affect the chemical reaction. This work contributes to understand wastewater treatment techniques and apply to new challenges related to the environment, energy and life science.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/38WC092019-1757

Year: 2019