Air Purifier for Benzene Removal by using Photocatalytic Oxidation Technology

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to apply the air purifier for benzene volatile organic compound removal through photocatalytic oxidation process using bio-composite film as photocatalyst. The polylactic acid films were embedded with 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 %wt of titanium dioxide powder. Each film was installed in annular closed-system photoreactor with UV-C light at 254 nm. Blown film extrusion technique was used to create the films with 30.0 microns in thickness. The morphology of the films were examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). After SEM testing, it was found that titanium dioxide was equally distributed and embedded all over the films. The crystal structure of titanium dioxide was appeared to be an anatase structure. It was found that the energy band gap was from 3.14 to 3.26 eV. The experiment on the optimal conditions for benzene removal by surface response techniques on three effect as photocatalyst dosage, light intensity, initial benzene concentration showed that the optimised response was 58.90% for 10%wt of titanium dioxide with 5±0.5 ppm of initial benzene concentration and 5.24 mW/cm2 of light intensity. A linear correlation of 0.82 was found in the multiple regression analysis of benzene treatment prediction. In the conclusion, there was a possibility to integrate the benzene removal process with an air purifier using photocatalytic oxidation.