Photocatalytic degradation of air pollutants — From modeling to large scale application

Indoor as well as outdoor air quality and their limiting values remain a major problem to our present-day society. This paper addresses the modeling of the decomposition process of nitrogen monoxide (NO) on reactive concrete surfaces under the controlled exposition of a UV source. Within this model the external mass transfer of the pollutant and the internal molecule diffusion-reaction were considered. A first-order kinetics equation is derived with respect to the NO concentration and a site-competitive adsorption between NO/NO2 and water molecules, resulting in a dependence of the reaction kinetics on the relative humidity. Using the proposed model, a reaction rate constant k and an adsorption equilibrium constant Kd can be derived which describe an active paving stone accurately. Experimental results from a self-developed photoreactor with continuous flow mode were used to validate the proposed kinetic expression. Furthermore, the effect of variations in process conditions such as irradiance and relative humidity on the two constants k and Kd is investigated. All modeling work provides a sound foundation for the translation of this process to real outside conditions. In this regard an upcoming project in a Dutch city is described in brief.