Continuous-flow photo-reactor for the photocatalytic destruction of water soluble ethers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10364167-B2
Application number	US-201615179405-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2016
Priority date	Jun 10, 2015
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for achieving degradation of ethers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for achieving degradation of ether-containing organic contaminants, wherein the method comprises exposing an organic contaminants-containing starting material to oxygen, a catalyst comprising TiO 2 , and an ultraviolet (UV) light source to thereby achieve degradation of said ether to CO 2 , wherein the degradation is achieved with a photocatalytic system comprising an ultraviolet (UV) light source, a series of continuous flow photoreactors, an oxygen supplying device capable of providing oxygen to said photoreactors, and a catalyst comprising TiO 2 , and wherein the photoreactors comprise borosilicate glass tubes, wherein the method comprises introducing the ether-containing organic contaminants into the photocatalytic system; allowing the ether-containing organic contaminants to be exposed to the catalyst comprising TiO 2 , oxygen, and the ultraviolet (UV) light when the ether-containing organic contaminants are flowing through the photocatalytic system; and converting the ether-containing organic contaminants to CO 2 .

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UV light source comprises fluorescent light.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UV light source comprises sunlight.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen is delivered in a constant concentration and is delivered by silicone tubing capable of providing oxygen with constant concentration.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the organic contaminants comprise at least one of tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-Amyl methyl ether (TAME), or dioxane.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is coated onto glass beads.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photocatalytic system comprises at least two photoreactors, wherein the at least two photoreactors are connected in parallel.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen is provided with a concentration of 10-20 mg/L.

Assignees

• Purdue Research Foundation

Inventors

• Barreto Reynaldo D

Classifications

• C02F2305/10

  Photocatalysts · CPC title

• B01J21/063

  Titanium; Oxides or hydroxides thereof · CPC title

• B01J35/0006

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01J8/06

  in tube reactors; the solid particles being arranged in tubes · CPC title

• C02F2103/06

  Contaminated groundwater or leachate · CPC title