Experimental analysis of a photoreactor packed with Pd‐BiVO4‐Coated glass beads

Abstract

A photoreactor packed with glass beads coated by palladium nanoparticles‐modified BiVO4 was tested and analyzed in phenol degradation under UV–Visible light. The photocatalytic activity of Pd‐BiVO4 under visible light is higher than TiO2 under UV light, as we previously reported. In this work, we try to use the Pd‐BiVO4 in a large scale by coating the glass beads with it, a potentially industrial‐scale use. For comparison, a flat‐plate reactor and a slurry reactor were also examined. The photocatalytic activity of Pd‐BiVO4 in phenol degradation was found to be higher than that of TiO2 in all systems (slurry, flat‐plate, and packed beads reactor [PBR]). Furthermore, PBR exhibited higher energy efficiency compared to the flat‐plate reactor in phenol oxidation. The superior performance of this reactor is due primarily to the highly exposed catalyst surface area, high mass transfer coefficient, and effective delivery of both photons and reactants to the catalyst surfaces. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: 132–139, 2019