Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Jefcoat, Irvin A.

Committee Member

Zappi, Mark E.

Committee Member

Schulz, Kirk H.

Committee Member

Bricka, R. Mark

Date of Degree

8-2-2003

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Chemical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an established photocatalyst utilized for the photo-oxidation of organics in wastewater. Aqueous suspensions of TiO2 require separation and re-suspension steps to be used on an industrial scale. A method of immobilizing TiO2 within the mesoporous structure of silica has been developed at the University of Alabama. The objective of this thesis was to design and evaluate a bench-scale, continuous, photocatalytic reactor utilizing these films. This was accomplished in two phases of work: (1) batch reactions and (2) continuous reactions. The batch reactor was a one-liter standard photochemical reactor from Ace Glass. The continuous photocatalytic reactor designed for this study consisted of nine 12-inch long, 6-mm ID quartz tubes aligned around the medium-pressure, ultra-violet lamp (UV) used in the batch reactor. The tubes were coated on the inside with a thin film of mesoporous silica impregnated with TiO2 and connected in series with 6-inch pieces of Masterflex tubing. Experimental conditions were as follows: 190 ppm solutions of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), UV lamp, TiO2 in either 0.05 wt% suspensions (slurry) or thin films of mesoporous silica (film); and/or 750 ppm hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In batch and continuous experiments the UV/H2O2 and the UV/TiO2 (slurry)/H2O2 systems were the most successful with respect to the oxidation of 2,4 ? DCP. The loss of 2,4 ? DCP in continuous UV/TiO2 (film) systems was not significantly different from continuous UV only systems. However, the continuous UV/TiO2 (film)/H2O2 system degraded more 2,4 ? DCP than the systems utilizing UV light alone. The continuous reactor developed in this study showed enhanced by-product degradation using UV/TiO2 (film)/H2O2 over the UV/H2O2 system.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20254

Comments

dichlorophenol||Advanced Oxidation Processes||Titanium Dioxide

Download

Share

COinS