A continuous PhotoFuelCell (PFC) reactor was proposed, designed and modelled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The important PFC reactor parameters such as hydrodynamics, radiation field and surface kinetics were modelled using the CFD model in order to simulate the events within the PFC reactor. Additionally, the formulated CFD model was used to predict the performance of the anodic chamber of PFC reactor by varying the inlet, outlet and photoanode positions prior to selecting the optimum design for real physical PFC reactor fabrication. The effect of variation in flow distribution over a wide range of Reynolds (Re) numbers, 200 < Re < 8000 was also studied. Results showed that the performance of anodic chamber was dependent on the benzoic acid concentration, light irradiance reaching the photoanode surface, reactor configuration and hydrodynamics condition. It was also,found that the PFC reactor design with the inlet position at the top, photoanode located opposite the inlet and with fluid flow under laminar regime attained the highest benzoic acid degradation rate. In conclusion, CFD simulations of PFC reactor can thus provide insights into the PFC reactor design and variation of hydrodynamics condition for effective water treatment in the anodic chamber and simultaneous solar hydrogen production in the cathodic chamber. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.