Photo-catalytic destruction of ethylene using microwave discharge electrodeless lamp

A double tube type microwave discharge electrodeless lamp was employed to investigate the photo-catalytic decomposition of ethylene gas, an important VOC species. The anatase TiO₂ film photo-catalyst balls prepared by a low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition method were used. In addition, the advantages of microwave/UV/TiO₂ photo-catalysts hybrid process were analyzed. The removal performance was examined under different conditions with different initial ethylene concentrations, gas residence times and oxygen concentrations. At all microwave powers tested, UV-C exhibited much larger irradiance than UV-A and UV-B. The degradation efficiency of ethylene increased with increasing microwave intensity, with decreasing inlet concentration, and with decreasing reaction gas flow rate. Taking the energy cost into account, residence time should be determined considering inlet concentration, volume of degradation, capacity of devices, and admitted costs. Microwave intensity was shown to be a critical operation variable for the photo-catalytic degradation of ethylene, required to be determined depending on initial ethylene concentration.