Gas holdup in the bubble column with cocurrent and countercurrent gas-liquid flow.

Abstract

The bubble column is commonly employed as a reactor in industrial processes such as chemical and fermentation processing as well as in the field of waste water treatment.It is often operated under conditions of liquid continuous flow.Correlations in predicting gas holdup in the bubble column with no liquid flow have been proposed by many work-ers1~5>7).However, the effect of liquid flow rate on gas holdup has not yet been elucidated quantitatively, and the findings obtained have been quite different amonginvestigators owing to the complicated flow situation of the two phases1~3)8).The objective of the present study is to ascertain the flow regimes of gas and liquid, and to obtain correlations useful in predicting gas holdup in both cocurrent and countercurrent flow systems.A criterion of flow regime distinction will be proposed and the effect of liquid flow rate on gas holdup will be examined.