Recent advances on modeling of solar heterogeneous photocatalytic reactors applied for degradation of pharmaceuticals and emerging organic contaminants in water

A short critical review of the state-of-the-art and emerging trends on mathematical modeling of heterogeneous photocatalytic solar reactors, applied for the degradation of emerging contaminants (EC) in water, is presented. The review discusses key aspects about EC reaction kinetics, solar and artificial radiation emission models, absorption-scattering models for evaluation of the radiant field in large-scale photoreactors, and mathematical models based on solar and artificial radiation-assisted heterogeneous photocatalysis. It includes the perspectives in mathematical modeling to aid the implementation of full-scale treatment of EC in water by heterogeneous photocatalysis. The main factors that need to be further developed are: (i) the incorporation of the impact of contaminants and water matrix in the radiation and reaction kinetics models; (ii) the influence of hydrodynamics on the radiation field of the photoreactor; (iii) the optimum design criteria of photoreactors related to a wide spectrum of photocatalysts; (iv) the transient reactor models taking into account the daily and hourly fluctuations of temperature and solar irradiation; and (v) the open-access software for wider dissemination of photoreactor modeling procedures.