Photodegradation and permeability of conventional photocatalytic reactor and two different submerged membrane photocatalytic reactors for the removal of humic acid in water

Abstract

The combination of photocatalytic reactor with membrane provided considerable advantages over the conventional photocatalytic reactor. In this study, photodegradation and permeability of photocatalytic reactor system with and without membrane were assessed for the removal of HA. TiO2 particles were completely rejected membranes with nominal pore size of <0.4m. Membranes used in submerged photocatalytic membrane reactor (SMPR) were hollow fiber MF membrane and anodizing TiO2 membrane. The results show that photocatalytic reactor with hollow fiber MF membrane was more efficient photodegradation than that without membrane due to the synergistic effect by integration of photocatalytic reaction and membrane filtration, whereas SMPR with anodizing TiO2 membrane showed lower treatment efficiency compared to that conventional photocatalytic reactor and SMPR with hollow fiber membrane owing to the reduction of photocatalytic activity sites. Moreover, it was revealed that permeation decrease rate of membrane with UV light irradiation was lower than that without UV light irradiation due to the reduction of membrane fouling by photocatalytic degradation of HA. Therefore, this work seems promising way to enhance photodegradation and to improve defect of conventional photocatalytic reactor.