Mitigation of low methane content landfill gas through visible-near-infrared photocatalysis over Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ /Graphene/TiO 2

Xinmei Tian, Siyuan Huang, Luochun Wang*, Lin Li, Ziyang Lou, Shouqiang Huang, Zhen Zhou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Untreated low methane (CH 4 ) content (less than 10%) landfill gas within the post-methanogenic stage is currently vented into the atmosphere, constituting an important source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG). Development of a proper mitigation process for low CH 4 gas is therefore necessary for landfills. In this study a special photocatalyst, Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ -TiO 2 -0.05% graphene (GR), was synthesized by sol-gel method and then characterized; it showed a good response to visible-near-infrared (Vis–NIR) sunlight. The corresponding absorption edge was 354 nm, and upconversion fluorescence peaks of ultraviolet (364 nm) and violet (408 nm) emissions were acquired under 980 nm excitation. Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ -TiO 2 -GR was developed and tested for removal of low CH 4 landfill gas under Vis–NIR light irradiation, and a maximum photodegradation rate of 45.1% for CH 4 was obtained using the photocatalyst Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ -TiO 2 -0.05% GR with a light intensity of 2050 mW m −2 . The corresponding CH 4 content decreased from 10% to 5.5%, mitigating almost half of GHG during the post-methanogenic stage. The intermediate products of CH 4 degradation were CO, [rad] OH, O , CO 2 and H 2 O traced by in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). This research proposes a new approach for reducing the GHG effect of low CH 4 content landfill gas.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)854-860
Number of pages7
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume456
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Oct 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Graphene
  • Low CH content landfill gas
  • Mitigation process
  • Photocatalyst
  • Photodegradation mechanism of CH
  • Upconversion

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