A pilot study of volatile organic compound removal by photo catalytic oxidation

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) could be precursors of atmospheric ozone and photochemical smog formation. In particular, chemical plants have produced a lot of VOCs and they have been forced to reduce or remove air emissions at on-site chemical facilities. For effective removal of VOCs produced in the chemical plants, the author employed a titanium oxide (TiO(2)) mediated photo catalytic oxidation method. It is required to initiate oxygen radicals for the photo catalytic oxidation of VOCs. The initiation methods employed in this study mere Ultra-Violet (UV), Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP), and a combination of UV and NTP techniques. This study focused a comparison of the removal efficiencies of VOCs as a function of the initiation method such as NTP and/or UV techniques. Removal efficiency change of VOCs was investigated as a function of the wavelength of the UV lamp (254nm, 302nm, and 365nm) and the degree of TiO(2) coating (10% and 30%). In general, the removal efficiency by NTP technique was much better than the UV or the combination of UV and NTP techniques. In a comparison of UV wavelengths employed, it is also realized that the shorter wavelength showed the better removal efficiency as compared with longer ones. In a comparison of removal efficiencies of VOCs according to the degree of TiO(2) coating, the higher TiO(2) coating showed the better removal efficiency than the lon er TiO(2) coating.