Study on the Radiation Distribution in A Fluidized Tubular Reactor for Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Radiation distribution study is of importance for the design and the optimization of fluidized photocatalytic tubular reactor which has been developed for photocatalytic hydrogen production under direct solar light. In the present study, the radiation distribution in such reactor was successfully simulated by adopting Monte Carlo method and the six-flux radiation absorption-scattering models. Both the incident angles of light around the reactor and the concentration distribution of photocatalyst were taken into account. Our analysis indicates that the angles and the intensity of the incident rays significantly affect the radiation distribution. Moreover, it was also found that the equilibrium radiation distribution has a close relationship with the density distribution of the photocatalysts. The simulated results are expected to be helpful for obtaining the optimal operating parameters for solar photocatalytic hydrogen production. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of [name organizer]