A novel fluidized-bed-optical-fibers photocatalytic reactor (FBOFPR) and its performance

The key in designing a photocatalytic reactor lies in resolving the problems of mass transfer, light transmission and light scattering. Especially, the light scattering of catalyst is very acute, which makes the accurate quantification of light irradiation difficult. In this study, a novel fluidized-bed-optical-fibers photocatalytic reactor (FBOFPR) with easy quantification of light irradiation was designed by combining fluidized-bed photocatalytic reactor with optical-fiber light source that its optical fibers were fixed by an aluminum fixed jacket for UV total reflection, and its performance was tested by using trichloroethylene (TCE) as a target pollutant. The results show that, under the condition of water vapor content at 0.25%, oxygen content at 20.8%, initial concentration of TCE at 303.32 ppm, input light amount at 3.07 × 10¹⁷ s^-1 and residence time at 1.6 s, the apparent photon quantum efficiency is 26.31%, the turnover frequency is 12.44 μmol/(g TiO₂ min) and the removal efficiency is 86.66%. Compared with the conventional flat plate fluidized-bed photocatalytic reactor, FBOFPR exhibits many advantages in the aspect of effective use of photon, sufficient exertion of catalyst activity, effective removal of TCE and easy quantification of light irradiation.