ACTIVITY OF THE IONIC BUBBLES DURING ABSORPTION WITH CHEMICAL-REACTION ON COLUMN PLATES

Comparative measurements of the interfacial area on a sieve plate were carried out by the chemical method using two standard absorption syst ems: CO2-(NaOH-Na2CO3) and O2-(Na2SO3-Na2SO4) with CoSO4 as the cataly st. The values obtained with the second (O2-(Na2SO3-NaSO4)) system are consistently higher than those obtained with the first system. The ob served differences can be attributed to the different contribution of ionic bubbles to the overall rate of absorption. The ionic bubbles for m a separate population, distinct from that of the large bubbles. Thei r residence time is larger than that of the large bubbles and is estim ated to lie in the range 0.1-0.3 s. A model of the froth structure has been proposed.