A step forwards in ethanol selective photo-oxidation

This work focuses on the optimization of a photocatalyst formulation for the selective oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. VO(x)/TiO(2) catalysts at different vanadium loading were studied in a gas-solid photocatalytic fluidized bed reactor at high illumination efficiency, in which the bed is constituted by photocatalyst diluted with alpha-Al(2)O(3) or silica gel. Photocatalytic tests showed the selective formation of acetaldehyde, with ethylene and carbon dioxide as by-products. Selectivity is influenced by the vanadium loading. For ethanol inlet concentration of 0.2 vol%, maximum conversion and acetaldehyde selectivity of 73% and 97%, respectively, were obtained at 100 degrees C on catalyst at nominal 5 wt% V(2)O(5) content (53% of surface monolayer) mixed with alpha-Al(2)O(3). Selective sites were related to surface polymeric vanadates possessing Ti-O-V and V-O-V functionalities while the photoactivity appeared correlated with the catalyst equivalent band gap energy. Increasing the ethanol inlet concentration to 1 vol% and diluting the catalyst with silica gel, total ethanol conversion with about 97% selectivity to acetaldehyde was achieved with a photoreactivity of 0.34 mol m(irradiated)(-3) s(-1). This is three times higher than reported for other photoreactors.