Photocatalytic conversion of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) to high value products using TiO2 nanoparticles supported on stainless steel webnet

The direct conversion of CO2 and CH4 concurrently with a photocatalytic reaction system using nano TiO2 particles coated on stainless steel webnet was investigated. The experiments were done under UV irradiation in an appropriate gas-phase batch reactor. SEM, XRD and UV-vis spectra analyses were carried out for characterization of prepared catalysts. Examination of the photocatalytic activities of TiO2 on three different meshes of webnets demonstrated significantly higher yield for TiO2 on 120 mesh than TiO2 on 60 and 200 mesh webnets. In addition, the experiment results have shown that fabricated catalyst exposed to initial ratios of 45%CO2:45%CH4:10%He as gaseous feed components had the highest efficiency and under these experimental conditions, the conversions of 27.9% for CO2 and 33.4% for CH4 were obtained. The conversion products were characterized using FTIR spectroscopy with special designed cell in gas phase to be formate and acetate derivatives. (C) 2012 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.