Assessing the Simultaneous Electricity Generation and Photocatalytic Oxidation of An Organic Substrate in Wastewater

The contemporary removal of organic pollutants from aqueous solution and electricity generation is studied in the present work by means of an experimental device resulting from the combination of a photocatalytic reactor and an electrochemical cell. The proposed system relies on the capability of Cu2‏+‏ ions to reduce in the presence of TiO2, (solar) UV radiations and a sacrificial organic agent. In the anodic solution of the combined photoreactor-cell, Cu0 is oxidized to Cu2‏+ and the latter is reduced again to the lowest oxidation state. The use of different sacrificial agents ranging from formic acid (FA) to glycerol (GLY) to glucose (GLU) is investigated along with the adoption of two different cathodes for the cell, the first based again on the couple Cu2‏+‏/Cu0 and the second on the couple O2/H2O. The results of the present work indicate that it is possible to combine a photocatalytic reactor and an electrochemical cell to achieve a contemporary removal of an organic pollutant from an aqueous solution and generate electricity.