GAS HOLD-UP IN BUBBLE COLUMNS WITH NON-NEWTONIAN LIQUIDS

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to present the authors' investigations on the effect of liquid properties and gas superficial velocity on the local and mean gas hold-up in bubble columns. The experimental results present the axial variation in gas hold-up for water and various non-Newtonian liquids. The parameter of the diagrams is the gas superficial velocity. It can be seen that an increase of the apparent viscosity of liquids and gas superficial velocity leads to an increase of the axial variation in gas hold-up. This is the consequence of a change in the flow regime from churn-turbulent to slug flow. However, the transition to slug flow does not appear simultaneously in the whole column.