The Comparison of Toluene Removal Rate in Two Photocatalytic Oxidation Systems of ZnO and TiO2 Nanoparticles on SiO2 bed

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are one of the main group of air pollutants. Photocatalytic oxidation is one of the destructive methods for gaseous pollutants and has been received more attention in the past years. In this study investigated the comparison of the toluene removal efficiency by Photocatalytic Oxidation of Toluene by ZnO/SiO2 and TiO2/SiO2. In this study, the effect of parameters such as the amount of relative humidity, initial concentration of pollutant, the apparent speed of gas and the minimum speed of fluidizing of bed on the process of photocatalytic oxidation of Toluene is examined by comparison between TiO2/SiO2 and ZnO/SiO2 catalysts in a fluidized bed reactor. as it was explained, by absorption of water molecules on the surface of the catalyst and converting them to hydroxyl active radicals, these radicals act as a pushing factor in the reaction. The study also showed that an increase in the relative humidity in the 15–45% range would increase the efficacy of toluene oxidation. Conversion percentages between TiO2/SiO2 and ZnO/SiO2 catalysts were not significantly different (pv>0.05), while the reaction rate of ZnO/SiO2 catalyst was higher than TiO2/ SiO2 catalyst (pv

Keywords

• photocatalysis
• toluene
• zno/ tio2
• tio2/sio2
• fluidized bed reactor