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Abstract:

One promising application of heterogeneous photocatalysis is the photocatalytic oxidation, which can be used to valorize waste glycerol from biodiesel production. Usually, a TiO2 catalyst is used to convert glycerol to dihydroxyacetone and glyceraldehyde, which can be sold for an order of magnitude more. However TiO2 is optically active in the UV region (λ≤387 nm), therefore it cannot be used for visible photocatalysis. TiO2 can be loaded with gold (plasmonic catalyst) nanoparticles, which improves the quantum yield. The major limitations of heterogeneous photocatalysis are mass and photon transfer limitations. The microreactor proved to solve mentions limitations by providing a high surface area to volume ratio. However, these reactors are difficult to scale-up and therefore have low throughput. A way to scale-up these reactors is to make use of monolith structures. There were several attempts to use monoliths for photochemistry but they resulted in slow apparent kinetics since monoliths are made of opaque materials.3D-printing makes it possible to rapidly prototype translucent monoliths. In this study, a 3D-printed unit cell, which is the precursor of the monolith, is constructed and coated with TiO2 gold doped photocatalyst for visible photocatalysis. The unit cell is used to convert waste glycerol. An increase in reaction rate is expected due to the flow regime present in the channels, which eliminates mass transfer limitations.