To increase the efficiency of the photocatalytic process to be used in the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) removal from industrial emissions, in this report has been investigated the possibility to increase the photocatalyst performances by the extension also in the visible, as well as in the UV-A range, the spectrum of the light radiation absorbed from the photocatalyst. For this purpose, several semiconductor materials to be used as photocatalyst have been synthesized and characterized. In order to be able to estimate and compare the performance of the new materials, a screening test was also developed to quickly determine the photocatalytic efficiency of a large number of samples in the photocatalytic reduction of VOCs under irradiation conditions with both ultraviolet (UV-A) and visible light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1305,1303,1450,1300],"targets":[1304,1317],"rapporti_tipologie":[762],"class_list":["post-193410","rapporti","type-rapporti","status-publish","hentry","tag-energy-efficiency-en","tag-energy-transition","tag-industrial-emissions","tag-industrial-sector","targets-industrial-world","targets-research","rapporti_tipologie-report-en"],"acf":{"dont_show_hompage":true,"projects":{"ID":188401,"post_author":"464","post_date":"2024-06-13 15:10:04","post_date_gmt":"2024-06-13 13:10:04","post_content":"","post_title":"Energy efficiency of industrial products and processes","post_excerpt":"The goal of the project is to facilitate the spread of energy efficiency and decarbonization in the industrial sector by developing product and process technologies, with the purpose of achieving the growth targets set by national and international policy documents.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"energy-efficiency-of-industrial-products-and-processes","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-07-02 10:33:31","post_modified_gmt":"2024-07-02 08:33:31","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.rse-web.it\/progetti\/energy-efficiency-of-industrial-products-and-processes\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"progetti","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"order_posts":"","dont_show_search":false,"related_posts":false,"show_on_slider":false,"single_post_data":{"titolo_spot":"","post_content":"
Volatile organic carbon (VOC) compounds represent a serious hazard for human health. VOC are widely present in industrial environments and their toxicity is well known. To improve safety and preserve a healthy working environment and good air quality, European laws establishes limits to VOC emission into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
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Nowadays, in the industry the VOCs abatement is based on technologies that allow either to separate and isolate the contaminant compounds (adsorption, absorption, condensation processes), or to eliminate them by oxidation (biological, thermal, catalytic processes), but are particularly energy intensive. Currently, the VOCs abatement by catalytic combustion is the most used industrial process, but it requires relatively high temperatures and therefore involves considerable operating costs.<\/p>\n
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The photocatalytic oxidation represents an interesting alternative solution, which allows high abatement efficiencies, at room temperature and with the formation of harmless end products (CO2 and H2O). To investigate the efficient applicability of photocatalysis to the treatment of gaseous effluents with significantly lower energy costs than conventional technologies, in the previous year a plant for the abatement of organic pollutants by photocatalytic process was set up at RSE laboratories. The aforementioned plant is able to operate in continuous mode, so as to evaluate its efficiency in treating high volumes of gas streams.<\/p>\n
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The employed photocatalyst has been synthesized in RSE and consists of nanometric titanium dioxide (TiO2) powders anchored on support of pyrex glass shaped as hollow cylinders (6×6 mm) that is photoactivated by ultraviolet light irradiation. For this reason, the plant reactor has been realized as a steel cylinder of about 23 l volume, where five Wood lamps (also called black light) of 15 W (emission at 360 nm) are arranged.<\/p>\n
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For the photocatalytic reactor inlet and outlet gas stream composition analysis, the plant is equipped with both a micro-gas chromatograph to monitor the concentration of VOCs and a continuous analyzer for the quantitative measurement of the CO2 produced by the VOCs photocatalytic mineralization reaction.<\/p>\n
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Always in the previous three-year plan, the plant was tested using synthetic mixtures with variable VOC concentrations and different contact times, in order to evaluate the kinetics of removal and to point out the possible formation of reaction by-products. In particular, operating with the plant in continuous mode, mixtures in nitrogen of benzene (20 and 10 ppmv) added with 3% (v\/v) of oxygen were used.<\/p>\n
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An abatement efficiency of 35.5% and 22.0% was obtained operating with a flow rate of 300 Nl\/ h and a benzene concentration of 10 and 20 ppm, respectively. The removal efficiency increases to 62.5% and 36.5% when we operate with a flow rate of 150 Nl\/h and again a benzene concentration equal to 10 and 20 ppm, respectively.<\/p>\n
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To increase the efficiency of the photocatalytic process to be used in the VOC removal from industrial emissions, in the reference period the possibility to increase the performances has been investigated by the extension also to the visible, in addition to the UV-A range, the spectrum of the light radiation absorbed from the photocatalysts. For this purpose, several semiconductor materials to be used as photocatalyst have been synthesized and characterized.<\/p>\n
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In order to be able to estimate and compare the performance of the developed materials, a screening test has been also developed to quickly determine the photocatalytic efficiency of a large number of samples in the photocatalytic reduction of VOCs under irradiation conditions with both ultraviolet (UV-A) and visible light. All the materials investigated showed a comparable and limited photocatalytic activity under irradiation with visible light and unfortunately none of them showed higher performance compared to the TiO2 used in the preparation of the photocatalyst supported in the previous PT.<\/p>\n
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The Report is available on the Italian site<\/strong><\/p>\n","link_estreno":false,"scarica_file":false,"button":{"text":"","link":""},"referente_group":false,"data_emissione":"2023-12-31","autori":"M. Notaro, G. Santucci De Magistris (RSE S.p.A.)","rapporto":"","rif_rse":"23012312"},"satellite_post_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n