Detalhes do Documento

ABSTRACT: The SPECTRUM project aims to design, develop, prototype, and test lab-scale solar collectors that effectively utilise the entire solar spectrum to cogenerate heat, electricity and hydrogen. SPECTRUM Work package 1 is dedicated to the optimization of the photocatalytic process of industrial wastewater (IWW) treatment and hydrogen generation and is divided in four tasks. This deliverable D1.3 provides an account of the activities carried out in Task 1.3, “Optimization of Photocatalytic H₂ Production Process at Laboratory Scale,” as well as the results achieved during its duration. The photocatalysts developed in Task 1.2, “Development of nanostructured low cost and sustainable photocatalyst”, were tested for hydrogen production in a slurry type batch reactor using UV radiation as light source. In these preliminary assays, synthetic aqueous solutions containing ethanol or glycerol as sacrificial agent (SA) were used to test the performance of a first series of copper decorated TiO2 nanoparticles (NP) photocatalysts. A comprehensive series of experiments enabled the selection of the most effective photocatalyst, Cu-decorated TiO2 nanoparticles with 6 weight % of copper (Cu/TNP-6). This photocatalyst was then utilized with aqueous solutions of ethanol or glycerol to optimize three key operational parameters — pH, photocatalyst concentration, and sacrificial agent concentration. The same methodology was subsequently applied to evaluate the performance of two additional copper-based photocatalyst sets developed in Task 1.2: copper-decorated TiO₂ nanotubes and copper/biochar-decorated TiO₂ nanoparticles.