IMPACT OF STRUCTURED PACKING ON BUBBLE COLUMN MASS TRANSFER CHARASTERISTICS. PART 2. ANALYSIS OF GAS-LIQUID MASS TRANSFER MEASUREMENTS

The impact of the Sulzer SMV 16 packing elements on mass transfer characteristics in a packed column was studied. The gas phase (oxygen) and the liquid phase (tap water) passed the device in a concurrent upflow mode. The measurements of physical absorption of the oxygen into the liquid were taken in both hydrodynamic regimes, partly in the homogeneous and partly in the heterogeneous. Also, the experiments were doubled in an empty column for comparison. In the calculation of the volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficients, kLa, axial dispersion model (ADM) and plug flow model (PFM) were tested. It is systematically shown, that ADM gives far more reliable interpretation of the recorded data than PFM. For both modifications of the column the gas velocity affects the mass transfer coefficients the most. Higher values of kLa were found in the packed bed, and the impact of internals increases progressively with the gas velocity. For an empty column the correlation of Akita and Joshida5 gives the coefficients close to ours within 18.5%