Hydrodynamics and mass transfer in an airlift reactor

Hydrodynamics and mass transfer in internal and external flow airlift react ors have been studied in this work, Gas hold-ups and liquid velocities have been determined in a concentric tube airlift reactor, while oxygen mass tr ansfer has been measured in an external loop airlift reactor. First, tracer measurements were used to verify a conventional axial dispersion model. Fu rther, a model derived from multi-phase Navier-Stokes equations was verifie d with experimental data from the oxygen mass transfer measurements. Both m odels were in a good agreement with the measurements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.