Abstract
A study has been made of obtaining the gas phase photooxidative decomposition rate of trichloroethylene (TCE) which was extracted from contaminated soil by evacuation. A cylindrical reactor which was equipped with a low pressure mercury lamp at the center axis (reactor I) was divided into several spaces with barriers. Conversion of TCE increased with increasing the number of divided spaces in the reactor under low gas flow rate, however, the conversion of TCE decreased with increasing the number of the spaces under high gas flow rate. Moreover, the conversion increased with increasing the initial concentration of TCE under the condition of the same gas flow rate. The photooxidative decomposition rate of TCE was obtained by using graphical method under the assumption of that the complete mixing flow was formed and the average photo intensity in each spaces in the reactor was same. The maximum decomposition rate was obtained at the conversion of c.a. 0.8 and the rate was proportional to the 1.2th power of the concentration of TCE. The photooxidative decomposition rate of TCE in a reactor with larger diameter (reactor II) was in passable agreement with the value expected from the data obtained in the reactor I.
