Sectionalised bubble column: Gas hold-up and wall side solid-Liquid mass transfer coefficient

Abstract

The effect of gas sparger type, clear liquid height, liquid viscosity and addition of electrolyte on fractional gas hold-up in a 0.38 m i.d. sectionalised bubble column (SBC) was studied for superficial gas velocities ranging from 0.03 to 0.15 m s^-1. A study of the wall side solid-liquid mass transfer coefficient, k_SL, has been made by considering the dissolution of copper in acidic dichromate solutions. The variation of k_SL with axial distance in a section for different gas velocities has been explained. A comparison between the performance of sectionalised bubble columns and conventional bubble columns has been presented. In some cases, the SBC may prove to be superior to bubble columns in practice.