Laurent Molins

Use of Experimental Designs to Establish a Kinetic Law for a Gas Phase Photocatalytic Process

Abstract The photocatalytic degradation of three common indoor VOCs – acetone, toluene and heptane – is investigated in a dynamic photocatalytic oxidation loop using Box–Behnken designs of experiments. Thanks to the experimental results and the establishment of a kinetic rate law based on a simplified mechanism, a predictive model for the VOC degradation involving independent factors is developed. The parameters under investigation are initial concentration, light intensity and air velocity through the photocatalytic medium. The obtained model fits properly the experimental curves in the range of concentration, light intensity and air flow studied.