Photocatalytic degradation of dyes in aqueous solution operating in a fluidised bed reactor

This work reports a preliminary design of a new photochemical reactor and its application to photochemical degradation of two dyes, Crystal Violet and Azure B, operating in both batch and continuous processes. A novel kind of photocatalyst, consisting of ZnO immobilised in alginate gel beads, which is able to photodegrade organic dyes effectively, has been employed in the present study. When this photocatalyst, at a concentration of 1 g of ZnO per litre of alginate gel at 3%, was employed in batch process, almost total decolourisation of Crystal Violet in reaction times lower than 120 min was observed.