PRESSURE DROP AND MASS TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS IN CONCURRENT SCREEN PLATE BUBBLE COLUMN

Pressure drop and oxygen desorption from water and four other aqueous CMC solutions were determined in a 5 cm diameter multistage bubble column with and without plate reciprocation. The plates were made from stainless steel wire screens of porosities greater than 0.62. The column pressure loss was found to increase with plate agitation, phase velocities and screen mesh number. A modified Reynolds number was proposed to permit a reasonable prediction of the pressure loss, based on the model of Noh and Baird (1984). At a specific power consumption, the present volumetric mass transfer coefficients arc considerably larger than those reported in earlier studies with sieve plates. The coefficients were correlated with specific power input, phase flow velocities and system physical properties.