Ana Lakota, Melita Jazbec, Janez Levec

Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana,
Aškerčeva 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
 

ABSTRACT

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%.