Simultaneous Hydrogen Production and Acetic Acid Degradation by Heterogeneous Photocatalysis using a Metallurgical Waste as Catalyst

This study presents the generation of a renewable fuel using acetic acid as electron donor, copper slag (CS) as photocatalyst and UV–Vis irradiation. The CS was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV–Vis spectroscopy. Specific surface area (S BET ) was determined on basis of N 2 isotherms. A 2 3 factorial experimental design was performed to identify factors controlling the hydrogen evolution and mineralisation of acetic acid. The experimental factors were: slag dose (0.1, 0.55 and 1 g/L), acetic acid concentration (1, 5.5 and 10% vol) and reaction time (2, 5 and 8 h). Synthetic acetic acid solutions were used. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed showing that slag dose, reaction time and an interaction between both factors were statistically significant (p-value