Mass transfer in bubble column for industrial conditions—effects of organic medium, gas and liquid flow rates and column design

Abstract

Most of available gas–liquid mass transfer data in bubble column have been obtained in aqueous media and in liquid batch conditions, contrary to industrial chemical reactor conditions. This work provides new data more relevant for industrial conditions, including comparison of water and organic media, effects of large liquid and gas velocities, perforated plates and sparger hole diameter. The usual dynamic O 2 methods for mass transfer investigation were not convenient in this work (cyclohexane, liquid circulation). Steady-state mass transfer of CO 2 in an absorption–desorption loop has been quantified by IR spectrometry. Using a simple RTD characterization, mass transfer efficiency and k L a have been calculated in a wide range of experimental conditions. Due to large column height and gas velocity, mass transfer efficiency is high, ranging between 40% and 90%. k L a values stand between 0.015 and 0.050 s - 1 and depend mainly on superficial gas velocity. No significant effects of column design and media have been shown. At last, using both global and local hydrodynamics data, mass transfer connection with hydrodynamics has been investigated through k L a / ε G and k L a / a .