Development and modeling of a flat plate serpentine reactor for photocatalytic degradation of 17-ethinylestradiol

A flat plate serpentine reactor modified from ultraviolet disinfection pool in municipal wastewater treatment plants was developed for the removal of 17-ethinylestradiol (EE2) for the first time. The photocatalytic degradation performance of EE2 was investigated in this serpentine reactor under different conditions such as inlet concentrations, loaded catalyst concentrations, incident radiations fluxes, and flow velocities. More than 98 % of EE2 was removed under certain conditions within 120 min. An integrated model including a six-flux adsorption–scattering model and a modified flow diffusion model was established to investigate the effect of radiation field and flow velocities, respectively. A satisfactory agreement was observed between the model simulation and experimental results, showing a potential for design and scale-up of photocatalytic reactor for wastewater treatment.