Abatement of VOCs mixture of emerging concern by VUV-PCO process: From lab to pilot scale

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2023-01, Vol.857, p.159295-159295, Article 159295
• Main Authors: Huang, Pingli, Li, Yiheng, Shu, Yajie, Liang, Shimin, Huang, Xiongfei, Gan, Yanling, Li, Guangqin, Huang, Haibao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ethyl acetate; Pilot scale; Toluene; Trifunctional catalyst; VOCs mixture; VUV-PCO
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159295

As a kind of emerging pollutant, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are getting increasing attention due to their contribution to the formation of atmospheric haze and O3. Photocatalytic oxidation under vacuum ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation (VUV-PCO) presents a promising method for VOCs degradation, but it is seldom studied for VOCs compound and the mechanism is still elusive. Herein, typical VOCs such as toluene and ethyl acetate were degraded separately or together in VUV system and in VUV-PCO system with the designed trifunctional catalyst Mn/TiO2/ZSM-5. Intermediates were recognized by PTR-TOF-MS. It is found that dual VOCs mixture outperformed single VOCs under both VUV process and VUV-PCO process. Possible degradation mechanisms were proposed. To explore the potential practicality of VUV-PCO technology, scale-up synthesis of Mn/TiO2/ZSM-5 on ceramic foams was successfully carried out and assembled into a homemade pilot-scale VUV-PCO equipment for the control of simulated VOCs complex (toluene, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and acetone). Pilot-scale catalytic testing with the monolithic catalysts achieved high removal efficiency (over 90 % efficiency after two cycles of regeneration) and confirmed the practical application possibility of VUV-PCO technology in multiple VOCs degradation. This work probes into the VUV-PCO technology applicability from lab scale to pilot scale and promotes the understanding of VUV and VUV-PCO in VOCs complex decomposition. [Display omitted] •Binary VOCs degradation outperformed single VOCs in both VUV and VUV-PCO systems.•Degradation intermediates were determined by PTR-TOF-MS and possible degradation mechanisms were proposed.•Pilot-scale device was designed and functioned well with VOCs mixture removal efficiency under optimized parameters.