Hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis from water and air using a scaled-up 1-m2 flow reactor

Abstract

Particulate photocatalysis (PC) has shown great potential in sustainable chemical synthesis. Until now, developing a scalable PC system remains a major challenge hurdling the practical application of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) photosynthesis. Here, we report a flexible hydrophobic photocatalyst sheet based on visible-light-responsive bismuth vanadate (BiVO 4 ) photocatalysts with (λ < 520 nm) to achieve flow-transport-dependent cascade photocatalytic H 2 O 2 production. Using dissolved oxygen from the air and deionized water or tap water, the flexible sheets showed solar-to-chemical conversion (STC) efficiency of 0.11%. These BiVO 4 photocatalyst sheets were arranged in a 4 × 4-panels array in a 1-m 2 flow-by reactor and achieved 1-month outdoor stability under diurnal solar cycles. We utilized this solar-produced H 2 O 2 solution for disinfection, achieving >99.9% inactivation of a coronavirus surrogate in 60 min. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) shows that at 2% STC efficiency, the cost becomes comparable to commercial approaches due to the elimination of transportation, storage, and deployment costs.