OPTIMIZACIÓN DE PROCESOS

GUÍA DE EVALUACIÓN DEL APRENDIZAJ

Advanced Oxidation Processes: Ozonation and Fenton Processes Applied to the Removal of Pharmaceuticals

This chapter aims to present the fundamentals, important variables, and pharmaceuticals removed by ozonation and Fenton, which are only two of the current existing advanced oxidation processes. Some toxicological information regarding pharmaceuticals oxidized by ozonation is also included. Some strategies to improve such processes, like adding a catalyst, light, or electrical current, are also analyzed. Thus, this chapter intends to present general but fundamental aspects of the aforementioned processes

Advanced Oxidation Processes II: Removal of Pharmaceuticals by Photocatalysis

In this chapter, basic concepts of advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are cited, such as photolysis, photocatalysis, and semiconductors used as photocatalysts. This is important since the wastewater pollution with drugs, coming from domestic use, hospitals, and industry is not only an environmental problem but social too. Pharmaceutical case study is shown to exemplify the photocatalytic degradation of different drugs contained in wastewater taken directly from some currents in the pharmaceutical industry, such as diclofenac, acetaminophen, naproxen, and ibuprofen, using modified TiO2 catalysts with different tin contents.CONACy

Catálisis en el Centro Conjunto de Investigación en Química Sustentable, uaem-unam*

Describimos aquí las actividades de investigación en el área de catálisis realizadas por algunas investigadoras de la Facultad de Química de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, adscritas al Centro Conjunto de Investigación en Química Sustentable, uaem-unam. Se incluyen las líneas de investigación que desarrollan, las contribuciones que han generado y los logros en este campo obtenidos en los últimos años. También se presenta información sobre la infraestructura con que se cuenta en el cciqs y en la Facultad de Química para llevar a cabo investigación sobre catálisis; la importancia que tienen los trabajos de colaboración nacional e internacional, así como, la formación de recursos humanos altamente especializados en esta área. Por último, presentamos las perspectivas de investigación y desarrollo planteadas para el campo de la catálisis

Towards Sustainability: Photochemical and electrochemical processes applied for environmental protection

In the last century, public policy around the globe was mainly focused on economic growth leaving out of this perspective, social concerns and the environment detriment that this merely economic approach was causing. It was until the last quarter of the 20th century that people started to be aware of the growing poverty and of the jeopardy of the planet as a result of human being activities. In consequence, the concept of sustainable development emerged in the United Nations as a call to all countries to integrate economic growth with social needs and environmental protection, in such a way that our activities as earth inhabitants stopped compromising the quality of life and needs satisfaction of future generations

Comparative Study of Quick Lime and CaO as Catalysts of Safflower Oil Transesterification

This work aimed to contrast the performance of quicklime and CaO reagent grade as heterogeneous catalysts for the safflower oil transesterification reaction. Quicklime was characterized by TGA analysis, XRD, atomic absorption, nitrogen physisorption and by Hammett method. In the safflower transesterification reaction, four main variables were studied: addition reagents order, reagents dosage, type of catalyst and methanol-oil molar ratio. The addition reagents order was not found to be determinant on time for reaching equilibrium or maximum methyl esters yield. On the contrary, reagents dosage was found to negatively affect reaction rate and methyl esters yield. It was found that quicklime performs better than CaO and this was ascribed to an increased basicity found in the former. From the results can also be inferred that the use of quicklime as catalyst of the transesterification reaction allows the decrease of the process cost by reducing both, the reaction time and the required amount of alcohol

Modelling and Simulation of the Radiant Field in an Annular Heterogeneous Photoreactor Using a Four-Flux Model

This work focuses on modeling and simulating the absorption and scattering of radiation in a photocatalytic annular reactor. To achieve so, a model based on four fluxes (FFM) of radiation in cylindrical coordinates to describe the radiant field is assessed. This model allows calculating the local volumetric rate energy absorption (LVREA) profiles when the reaction space of the reactors is not a thin film. The obtained results were compared to radiation experimental data from other authors and with the results obtained by discrete ordinate method (DOM) carried out with the Heat Transfer Module of Comsol Multiphysics® 4.4. The FFM showed a good agreement with the results of Monte Carlo method (MC) and the six-flux model (SFM). Through this model, the LVREA is obtained, which is an important parameter to establish the reaction rate equation. In this study, the photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde was carried out, and the kinetic equation for this process was obtained. To perform the simulation, the commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics v. 4.4 was employed

Estimation of effective diffusion coefficient and its effect on effectiveness factor for hds catalytic process: a multi-scale approach

Effectiveness factors have great relevance in multiphase reactors modeling since they are the conventional way of incorporating the effects of intra-particle resistance reaction rate. This work determines the description level effect of catalytic pellet microstructure on mass and energy effective transport coefficients prediction, isothermal and no isothermal. For such a purpose some results about on evaluation of the effective diffusivity and conductivity with the methodology of volume averaging were applied. The obtained results along with a Langmuir–Hinshelwood/Hougen–Watson kinetic expression were applied to establish the concentration and temperature fields in a catalytic particle. The evaluation of concentration field and effectiveness factors were developed using two different models: pseudohomogeneous mass and energy transport model for a catalytic particle with reaction in all domain, and heterogeneous mass and energy transport model with fluid-catalytic surface interphase reaction for a realistic porous structure model. The results show the differences in concentration and temperature profiles between both models and consequently in effectiveness factors. This could be ascribed to the form of evaluation of effective transport coefficients used in the pseudo-homogeneous model, and presumably to the simple shape of the unit cells used for the solution of the closure problem for the average transport equations with homogeneous reaction

Comparison of AOPs Efficiencies on Phenolic Compounds Degradation

In this work, a comparison of the performances of different AOPs in the phenol and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) degradation at lab and pilot scale is presented. It was found that, in the degradation of phenol, the performance of a coupled electro-oxidation/ozonation process is superior to that observed by a photo-Fenton process. Phenol removal rate was determined to be 0.83mg L−1 min−1 for the coupled process while the removal rate for photo-Fenton process was only 0.52mg L−1 min−1. Regarding 4-CP degradation, the complete disappearance of the molecule was achieved and the efficiency decreasing order was as follows: coupled electrooxidation/ ozonation > electro-Fenton-like process > photo-Fenton process > heterogeneous photocatalysis. Total organic carbon was completely removed by the coupled electro-oxidation/ozonation process. Also, it was found that oxalic acid is the most recalcitrant by-product and limits the mineralization degree attained by the technologies not applying ozone. In addition, an analysis on the energy consumption per removed gram of TOC was conducted and it was concluded that the less energy consumption is achieved by the coupled electro-oxidation/ozonation process