Photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A using an integrated system of a new gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed reactor and micrometer Gd-doped TiO2 particles

A new gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed photocatalytic reactor (GLSCFBPR) with internally placed multi-layered UV lamps was developed. Micrometer Gd-TiO₂ particles and commercial nanometer P25-TiO₂ were chosen as the photocatalysts, and the hazardous substance bisphenol A (BPA) was chosen as the model pollutant to investigate the performance of this new photocatalytic system. The results showed that the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the micrometer Gd-TiO₂ particles was similar to that of the nanometer P-25 particles at their respective optimum dosage but the former could be easily separated out by gravity. After investigating the effects of process parameters on the photocatalytic BPA degradation, the response surface method (RSM) was further used for process optimization. The interactions among process parameters, i.e., TiO₂ concentration, superficial gas velocity and superficial liquid velocity were discovered and a related analysis was carried out to explore the underlying mechanism. A quadratic mathematic model was established and performed satisfactorily when used for prediction. The optimum conditions for this new process were as follows: TiO₂ concentration 4.5 g/L, superficial gas velocity 7.83 × 10^-3 m/sec and superficial liquid velocity 8.65 × 10^-3 m/sec.