Kinetics of photolysis and photocatalytic oxidation of ammonium sulfite for hydrogen production

The production of hydrogen via photocatalytic water splitting is one of the most promising technologies for obtaining chemical energy from direct solar energy while maintaining the least possible waste and pollutants. In this paper, we obtain the kinetic parameters necessary for the design of a photoreactor for photolysis and photocatalysis of ammonium sulfite solution. For the case of photolysis, we obtain the kinetics for the effect of changing the pH on the produced amount of hydrogen. For the case of photocatalysis, the intrinsic kinetic parameters of photocatalysis of water splitting reaction of ammonium sulfite and water in the presence of cadmium sulfide as a catalyst under solar radiation was inspected by developing MATLAB codes that can predict the kinetics based on the results of experimental work done. The resulted kinetics are compared to experimental work already done. These obtained kinetic parameters provide guidance for the design or scale-up of a solar photoreactor.