Dr. Moreira's research focuses on water pollution abatement, which is increasingly gaining importance as water demand increases and fewer sources are available, making wastewater treatment the most viable option for water supply. Dr. Moreira's main research interest involves the use of Advanced Oxidation Processes for the removal of organic compounds in water. He is particularly interested in the development of new photo-catalysts based on TiO2 that are active under solar radiation and also the mathematical modeling of UV light inside photocatalytic reactors by stochastic methods. His research also involves the Kinetic Modeling of complicated reaction networks in photocatalytic systems.
PhD Thesis
Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenolic Compounds in Water: Irradiation and Kinetic Modeling, Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository (2011)
Scaling up a photoreactor requires both knowledge of optical properties of the slurry medium and...
Articles
A Unified Kinetic Model for Phenol Photocatalytic Degradation over TiO2 Photocatalysts (with Benito Serrano, Aaron Ortiz, and Hugo de Lasa), Chemical Engineering Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2012.04.033 (2012)
This study reports the kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation of phenol using four different TiO2...
Visible-Solar-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenol with Dye-Sensitized TiO2: Parametric and Kinetic Study (with Pankaj Chowdhury, Hassan Gomaa, and Ajay K. Ray), Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., (2012)
Phenol degradation with TiO2 photocatalyst under UV light is known to be an effective method....
TiO2 Absorption and Scattering Coefficients Using Monte Carlo Method and Macroscopic Balances in a Photo-CREC Unit. (with Benito Serrano Rosales, Aaron Ortiz Gomez, and Hugo de Lasa), Chemical Engineering Science (2011)
Evaluation of Photon Absorption in an Aqueous TiO2 Slurry Reactor Using Monte Carlo Simulations and Macroscopic Balance. (with Benito Serrano Rosales, Aaron Ortiz Gomez, and Hugo de Lasa), Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (2010)
Photocatalytic Thermodynamic Efficiency Factors. Practical Limits in Photocatalytic Reactors. (with Benito Serrano Rosales, Aaron Ortiz Gomez, and Hugo de Lasa), Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (2010)
Contributions to Books
Mineralization of Phenol in an Improved Photocatalytic Process Assisted with Ferric Ions: Reaction Network and Kinetic Modeling, Advances in Chemical Engineering: Photocatalytic Technologies (2009)
Estudio de la Eficiencia de Reactores Fotocatalíticos Heterogéneos, Sólidos porosos: preparación, caracterización y aplicaciones. (2007)
Unpublished Papers
Determination of the kinetic parameter in the photodegradation of phenol by a unified kinetic model by using least square curve fitting and the genetic algorithm. (with Benito Serrano and Hugo de Lasa), Submitted to International Journal of Chemical Reaction Engineering. (2012)
The Role of the Phase Function in Monte Carlo Simulations for Modeling the Radiation Field in Photoreactors. (with Benito Serrano Rosales and Hugo de Lasa) (2012)
Presentations
Kinetic Modeling and Parameter Estimation for the Photocatalytic Oxidation of Phenol in Water (with Benito Serrano Rosales and Hugo de Lasa), 61st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. (2011)
Evaluation of UV Absorption Parameters in an Aqueous Photocatalytic Slurry Reactor Using Monte Carlo Simulations and Macroscopic Balances (with Benito Serrano Rosales, Aaron Ortiz Gomez, and Hugo de Lasa), XXXII National Meeting and 1st International Congress AMIDIQ-2011. (2011)
Evaluation of Photon Absorption Parameters in an Aqueous Photocatalytic Slurry Reactor Using Monte Carlo Simulations and Macroscopic Balances (with Benito Serrano Rosales and Hugo de Lasa), The 21st International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (2010)
Photocatalytic Reactor Efficiency Factor for the Complete Spam of reaction times (with Benito Serrano Rosales and Hugo de Lasa), 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (2009)