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Simultaneous removal of gaseous benzene and toluene with photocatalytic oxidation process at high temperatures under UVC irradiation

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Abstract

Organic air pollutants represent many different pollutants, including persistent toxic organics and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The VOC group includes about 150 different compounds, the majority of which are considered harmful and toxic to human health. Considering all these features, the removal of VOC is of great importance. According to the Industrial Air Pollution Control Regulation, VOCs in flue gases are classified, and the limit value for the most dangerous group is specified as 20 mg/m3 according to the degree of damage. From past to present, many different removal technologies have been developed and continue to be developed. Removal of pollutants at low concentrations by conventional methods is more inadequate than those above certain concentrations. Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) is one of the technologies used for VOC removal recently. It has been determined that many different organic pollutants can be removed with this method. Within the scope of this study, the removal of benzene and toluene pollutants, which are two important VOCs frequently encountered in flue gases, by the photocatalytic oxidation method has been studied under UVC irradiation. In this study, a new photocatalyst by doping silver (Ag), a noble metal, and nickel (Ni), one of the transition metals, on TiO2 nanoparticles was developed and a laboratory-scale reactor system was designed. Many experiments were carried out by changing the system parameters such as ambient temperature (120 °C, 150 °C, 180 °C), humidity (25% and 50%), and percentage of Ag and Ni doping on TiO2 (0.5%, 1%, 2.5%, %5) and the most successful conditions for the removal of benzene and toluene contaminants were tried to be determined based on the results obtained. When all experiments carried out within the scope of this study were considered, the average removal efficiency for benzene was found as 89.33%, while the average removal efficiency for toluene was 88.23%. According to the obtained results, the most suitable conditions for the simultaneous removal of benzene and toluene pollutants with photocatalytic oxidation method under UVC light were determined as 120 °C temperature, 25% humidity, and 0.5% doping photocatalyst.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Scientific Research Projects (BAP) of Selcuk University with the thesis project (18101004) and the Technological Research Institute Turkey (TUBITAK) Environment, Atmosphere, Earth and Marine Sciences Research Support Group, for which we received financial support with the research project (118Y080).

Funding

This work was supported by the project numbered 18101004 by Selcuk University BAP and by TUBITAK with the project numbered 118Y080.

Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu,118Y080,Sukru Dursun,Selçuk Üniversitesi,18101004,Sukru Dursun

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  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Engineering and Natural Science Faculty, Konya Technical University, Konya, Turkey

    Sukru Dursun & Zeynep Cansu Ayturan

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  1. Sukru Dursun
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  2. Zeynep Cansu Ayturan
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Contributions

Şükrü Dursun contributed to the writing of introduction and conclusion sections and organization of the paper. Zeynep Cansu Ayturan contributed to the experimental work, writing of material and methods, results and discussions sections, format editing, and references.

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Correspondence to Zeynep Cansu Ayturan.

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Dursun, S., Ayturan, Z.C. Simultaneous removal of gaseous benzene and toluene with photocatalytic oxidation process at high temperatures under UVC irradiation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 38232–38247 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18790-2

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