Modelling of Photo-Fenton Solar Reactors for Environmental Applications

Abstract

A proposal for modelling photo-Fenton reactors for water pollution remediation is presented. Reactor models, based on chemical reaction engineering principles and radiative energy transport fundamentals in homogeneous systems, are derived at both laboratory and solar pilot-plant scales. The proposed methodology is illustrated by presenting an example on the modelling and scaling-up of a solar reactor for degradation of a model pollutant in aqueous solution: the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Firstly, a kinetic model derived from a reaction sequence is proposed and its kinetic parameters estimated, using an isothermal, well-stirred tank laboratory photoreactor. Afterwards, the kinetic model is employed to predict the reacting species concentrations during the photo-Fenton degradation in a pilot-plant, nonisothermal solar reactor designed to capture the UV/Visible/IR solar radiation. This approach has proved to be appropriate to simulate the behaviour of the photo-Fenton reactor under different experimental conditions.