Innovative photocatalytic reactor for the degradation of VOCs and microorganism under simulated indoor air conditions: Cu-Ag/TiO2-based optical fibers at a pilot scale

Abstract This study deals with photocatalytic application for indoor air pollution remediation. Two target compounds were selected: Butane-2,3-dione (C4H6O2) and Heptan-2-one (C7H14O). Escherichia coli (E. coli) were used as bacteria strain. Photocatalytic removal of VOCs alone, E. coli alone and their mixture (VOCs/E. coli) were evaluated, at pilot scale. Indeed, a series of experiments were carried out in a continuous planar reactor using a novel photocatalyst/TiO2 technology with metal wires e.g. Copper (Cu)/Silver (Ag)-woven in optical fiber. Effects of experimental conditions such as flow rate (2–12 m3.h−1), VOCs inlet concentration (5–20 mg.m−3) and humidity levels (5–70%) on removal efficiency were investigated to properly appraise the oxidation performance in real conditions. All textile fiber photo-catalysts (TiO2, TiO2-Cu and TiO2-Ag) showed good photocatalytic activities towards C4H6O2/C7H14O removal. As for simultaneous application with VOCs and E. coli: (i) in terms of VOCs removal efficiency, the same trend of performance was observed compared to VOCs experiments alone: 63% of removal efficiency by TiO2 alone, 46% by TiO2-Ag and 52% by TiO2-Cu, (ii) in terms of E. coli inactivation, only experiments with TiO2-Cu and TiO2-Ag revealed a good performance.