Conception, étude et modélisation d’un réacteur compact basé sur un textile adsorbant autonettoyant pour le traitement de l'air intérieur dans des conditions réelles

Topic description

Contextual elements

This thesis will be performed within the framework of the ANR TEXAD project, which is an interdisciplinary and collaborative project between three academic partners (CIP-ISCR-ENSCR, IRCELYON, IGGCM -Rennes 1) and Brochier Technologies (industrial partner) .

The project TEXAD aims to develop an innovative and sustainable technology of remediation that can be integrated into a stand-alone mobile module.

Such modules placed in a room (office, meeting room, classroom ) allow to treat indoor air. The concept consists in using adsorption as trapping technique coupled with an advanced oxidation process (AOP) for pollutant degradation, allowing to develop a sustainable purifier.

This coupling will allow on one hand to avoid the propagation of potentials intermediate pollutants from AOP and on the other hand it will allow to avoid a potential release of pollutants from adsorbent before its saturation.

The module will be validated firstly in 1 m3 chamber according to standards and secondly in 30 m3 climatic chamber simulating the actual operating conditions.

Objectives and specific thesis program

The thesis subject concerns a research work on the performances of VOCs degradation using combined photocatalysis and adsorption in a compact continuous reactor based on a new media based on a self-cleaning textile combining an adsorbent (activated carbon) and a photocatalyst (TiO2) supported on side-emitting optical fibers connected to UVA LEDs.

in order to investigate the efficiency of the best new catalysts under different configurations of reactor :

The first stage aims to (i) qualify the reactors’ performances, (ii) determine the influence of the parameters related to the gas flow (residence time, temperature, relative humidity.

mode of treatment (adsorption, regeneration and photocatalytic oxidation), (iii) identify and quantify eventual by-products due to the various characteristics of the gas and (iv) optimize the design and operating conditions to avoid formation of by-products.

In a second stage, the design will be optimized considering different flow patterns (tangential flow or cross flow), increasing compactness while controlling hydrodynamics (promoting mass transfer without excessive heat loss) and robustness to fluctuating air qualities (day / night, pollutant mixtures) and the regenerative efficiency.

The third stage will focus on the various possible treatment modes and their scheduling (loading and regeneration of the adsorbent, with or without continuous UV irradiation, open or closed loop, ) for optimal performance.

Several photocatalysis regeneration studies will be carried out in detail on an open and a closed loop.

Finally, all the experimental results obtained during this work will be combine to develop, fit and validate a mechanistic model which should make it possible to design a final stand-alone module.

Its performances will be validated in 1m3 chamber according to standard practice and secondly in 30 m3 climatic chamber simulating the actual operating conditions.

Starting date

11-01

Funding category

Public / private mixed funding

Funding further details