Investigation of carbon dioxide photoreduction process in a laboratory-scale photoreactor by computational fluid dynamic and reaction kinetic modeling

Abstract The production of solar fuels via the photoreduction carbon dioxide to methane by titanium oxide is a promising process control greenhouse gas emissions and provide alternative renewable fuels. Although several reaction mechanisms have been proposed, detailed steps are still ambiguous, limiting factors not well defined. To improve our understanding photoreduction, multi-physics model was developed using COMSOL. novelty this work computational fluid dynamic combined with novel intrinsic kinetic model, which built based on three-steps, namely adsorption, surface reactions desorption, while ultraviolet light intensity distribution simulated Gaussian Beer-Lambert model. conducted in laboratory-scale reactor under different water moisture partial pressures then modeled It found that simulation results for methane, monoxide hydrogen yield match experiments concentration range 10 ?4 mol·m ?3 at low pressure. Finally, adsorption site concentration, equilibrium constant, temperature were evaluated.