TY - JOUR
T1 - Design and CFD modelling of the anodic chamber of a continuous PhotoFuelCell reactor for water treatment
AU - Phuan, Yi Wen
AU - Ismail, Harun Mohamed
AU - Garcia-Segura, Sergi
AU - Chong, Meng Nan
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the financial support provided by the eScience fund (Project No.: 03-02-10-SF0121 ) and the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) (Reference Code: FRGS/1/2014/SG06/MUSM/02/1 ), Malaysia. Similar gratitude also goes to the Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship (Reference No.: NA150418 ) awarded to Associate Professor Dr. Meng Nan Chong, which is jointly funded by the Royal Society of UK and the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund being administered through the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - A continuous PhotoFuelCell (PFC) reactor was proposed, designed and modelled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The important PFC reactor parameters such as hydrodynamics, radiation field and surface kinetics were modelled using the CFD model in order to simulate the events within the PFC reactor. Additionally, the formulated CFD model was used to predict the performance of the anodic chamber of PFC reactor by varying the inlet, outlet and photoanode positions prior to selecting the optimum design for real physical PFC reactor fabrication. The effect of variation in flow distribution over a wide range of Reynolds (Re) numbers, 200 < Re < 8000 was also studied. Results showed that the performance of anodic chamber was dependent on the benzoic acid concentration, light irradiance reaching the photoanode surface, reactor configuration and hydrodynamics condition. It was also found that the PFC reactor design with the inlet position at the top, photoanode located opposite the inlet and with fluid flow under laminar regime attained the highest benzoic acid degradation rate. In conclusion, CFD simulations of PFC reactor can thus provide insights into the PFC reactor design and variation of hydrodynamics condition for effective water treatment in the anodic chamber and simultaneous solar hydrogen production in the cathodic chamber.
AB - A continuous PhotoFuelCell (PFC) reactor was proposed, designed and modelled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The important PFC reactor parameters such as hydrodynamics, radiation field and surface kinetics were modelled using the CFD model in order to simulate the events within the PFC reactor. Additionally, the formulated CFD model was used to predict the performance of the anodic chamber of PFC reactor by varying the inlet, outlet and photoanode positions prior to selecting the optimum design for real physical PFC reactor fabrication. The effect of variation in flow distribution over a wide range of Reynolds (Re) numbers, 200 < Re < 8000 was also studied. Results showed that the performance of anodic chamber was dependent on the benzoic acid concentration, light irradiance reaching the photoanode surface, reactor configuration and hydrodynamics condition. It was also found that the PFC reactor design with the inlet position at the top, photoanode located opposite the inlet and with fluid flow under laminar regime attained the highest benzoic acid degradation rate. In conclusion, CFD simulations of PFC reactor can thus provide insights into the PFC reactor design and variation of hydrodynamics condition for effective water treatment in the anodic chamber and simultaneous solar hydrogen production in the cathodic chamber.
KW - Computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
KW - Degradation
KW - Hydrodynamics
KW - PhotoFuelCell
KW - Radiation field
KW - Surface kinetics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028001909&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psep.2017.08.019
DO - 10.1016/j.psep.2017.08.019
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028001909
SN - 0957-5820
VL - 111
SP - 449
EP - 461
JO - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
JF - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
ER -
