Photocatalytic decolorization of rhodamine B by fluidized bed reactor with hollow ceramic ball photocatalyst

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants in wastewater by TiO2 has been introduced in both bench and pilot-scale applications in suspended state or immobilized state on supporting material. TiO2 in suspended state gave less activity due to its coagency between particles. Recent advances in environmental photocatalysis have focused on enhancing the catalytic activity and improving the performance of photocatalytic reactors. This paper reports a preliminary design of a new immobilized TiO2 photocatalyst and its photocatalytic fluidized bed reactor (PFBR) to apply photochemical degradation of a dye, Rhodamine B (RhB). But it was not easy to make a cost-effective and well activated immobilized TiO2 particles. A kind of photocatalyst (named Photomedium), consisting of hollow ceramic balls coated with TiO2-sol, which was capable of effective photodegradation of the dye, has been presented in this study. The photocatalytic oxidation of RhB was investigated by changing Photomedia concentrations, initial RhB concentrations, and UV intensity in PFBR.