The Chemical Engineering Journal, 8 (1974) 191-197
0 Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne. Printed in the Netherlands
Liquid-Phase Mixing in Bubble Columns: Effect of Liquid Properties
H. HIKITA and H. KIKUKAWA
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Osaka Prefecture,
(Received 7 July 1974)
Abstract
Experimental data on the liquid-phase mixing in bubble
columns were obtained with air and various liquids
by using a transient-state measurement technique. The
effect of the liquid physical properties on the liquid-
phase longitudinal dispersion coefficient was studied.
The liquid-phase dispersion coefficient wasfound to
vary with the viscosity of the liquid, the superficial gas
velocity and the column diameter. A new correlation
for the liquid-phase dispersion coefficient is presented
and shown to correlate the expen’mental data with an
average deviation of 3.0%.
INTRODUCTION
Bubble columns are widely used in chemical industry
as absorbers, strippers and gas-liquid reactors. Despite
many recent investigations of the liquid-phase mixing
in bubble columns, there is little information,12 avail-
able concerning the effect of the physical properties
of the liquid on the liquid-phase longitudinal dispersion
coefficient.
Aoyama et al. 1 measured the liquid-phase dispersion
coefficient in a 5 cm column with a perforated-plate
gas sparger using water, aqueous glycerol solution and
water containing a surface-active agent as liquids and
using air as gas. They found that the liquid physical
properties had practically no effect on the dispersion
coefficient.
Recently, Akita2 investigated the effect of the
liquid physical properties on the dispersion coefficient
in 7.7, 15.2 and 30.1 cm columns with single nozzle
gas spargers using air and various liquids of different
properties. He showed that the liquid-phase dispersion
coefficient, EL, is a function of the superficial gas
velocity, uG, and the column diameter, DT, being
independent of the liquid physical properties, and
presented the following equation correlating all the
experimental data:
191
Sakai, Osaka (Japan)
(##L-)=0.06 t o.55(f&_J7
.(l)
In the present work the liquid-phase longitudinal
dispersion coefficients in two columns with single
nozzle gas spargers were measured with air and several
liquids, and the effect of the liquid physical properties
on the dispersion coefficient was studied.
EXPERIMENTAL
Apparatus and procedure
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the experi-
mental apparatus. The bubble columns ernployed were
constructed of transparent vinyl chloride resin,
and their inside diameters were 19.0 cm and 10.0 cm.
The 19 cm column was 240 cm in height and twelve
pressure taps were drilled in the wall at 20 cm intervals.
The 10 cm column was 150 cm in height and three
pressure taps were drilled in the wall at 25 cm intervals.
These pressure taps were used for gas holdup measure-
ments. The gas spargers employed were of single
nozzle type, and three nozzles of 1.3 1, 2.06 and 3.62
cm I.D. were used for 19 cm column, and the nozzle
of 1.30 cm I.D. was used for 10 cm column. Each gas
nozzle was located 5 cm above the bottom plate of
the column.
The bubble columns were operated continuously
with respect to the gas flow and batchwise with respect
to liquids. The gas used was always air, which was fed
from the gas nozzle to the bottom of the column
after being metered with rotameters. The superficial
gas velocity ranged from 0.043 to 0.338 m/set. Liquids
employed were water and various kinds of aqueous
solutions, and are listed in Table 1.
The longitudinal dispersion coefficient, EL, was
determined by means of a transient-state measurement
technique 2- 5. Aqueous potassium chloride solution
192 H. HIKITA AND H. KIKUKAWA

column at a height of 3.0 cm from the bottom plate.

g
Ll3
Prior to the measurements of the liquid-phase
dispersion coefficient, the gas holdup was measured
by a manometric method. Values of the gas holdup,
EG, were calculated from:
(.-:I:

6 6
7

where g and gc are the gravitational constant and the

6 gravitational conversion factor, respectively, pL is the
density of the liquid, and dP/dz is the slope of the
i: curve representing the axial distribution of the static
pressure in the column. Details of the gas holdup
6 measurements are described in a previous paper6.

Calculation of liquid-phase dispersion coefficient

The axial dispersion model was used to describe the
characteristics of liquid-phase mixing in bubble columns.
The partial differential equation based on this model
has been solved analytically by Siemes and Weiss3 for
the tracer concentration, C, in the transient-state
measurements. The solution is:

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus:

1 blower; 2 rotameter; 3 gas inlet nozzle; 4 conduc- c- c,
----E]+_
2ZF =
tivity cell; 5 thermometer; 6 pressure tap; 7 bubble
C, - Co 7rh c
column; 8 tracer injector; 9 tracer tank. n=l

(0.5-4.0 M) was used as a tracer. The tracer was in- 1

;singh.cOsE(z -z)exp
jected instantaneously from a bulb type tracer injector F zF F (+rELt)]
on the liquid surface qt the top of the column. The
amount of the tracer was adjusted so that the equilib- (3)
rium concentration in the column remained less
than 0.05 M. The change in the tracer concentration where Co and C, are the initial and equilibrium con-
was measured by a conductivity cell with a platinum centrations of the tracer in the column, respectively,
electrode and was recorded on the recorder graph ZF is the height of aerated liquid, h is the height of
paper. The conductivity cell was inserted in the the column corresponding to the volume of tracer

TABLE 1

Liquids used and their physical properties

Surface
Temp. Density Viscosity tension
Liquid (“0 k/cm 3, WI (dyne/cm)

Water 20.0 1.00 1.00 72.0

8.0 wt % aq. methanol sol. 18.1 0.985 1.33 59.5
15.0 wt % aq. methanol sol. 16.0 0.974 1.71 51.0
53.0 wt % aq. methanol sol. 12.5 0.911 2.02 38.2
35.0 wt % aq. cane sugar sol. 14.0 1.156 5.18 73.6
50.0 wt % aq. cane sugar sol. 16.4 1.233 19.20 75.5
LIQUID-PHASE MIXING 1N BUBBLE COLUMNS 193

injected, z is the height above the bottom of the

column, and t is the time. The equilibrium tracer D, =lOcm, d,=1.30cm, Z,=1.33m
concentration C, is obtained from:
-Symbol Aq. solution
6- 0 water
A 35% cane sugar
c,z, = c,x + C,(Z, - X) (4) - . 50% .I
8 % methanol
b- : 1 5 7. 1.
where Cr is the tracer concentration at the injection . 53% I*
point.
The value of the dispersion coefficient, EL, was
obtained by matching the observed C vs. t curve
recorded on the recorder graph paper with the theor-
etical curve representing eqn. (3). Figure 2 shows a

D, = 19cm, d,=1.31 cm,

Z, = 1.33m

_r----7 0.1 -

0.08-I ’ 111 I
. water

I
-

0.1
0.06 8 0.1 2

"G * m/set
Fig. 3. Gas holdup for air in various liquids.

- experimental
--- eqn.(3)
liquid viscosity in cP, and the superficial gas velocity
0’ I I I I I 1 UG in m/set. As can be seen in this figure, the observed
0 20 40 60 values of eG are in good agreement with eqn. (5) the
t I
set average deviation being 2.8%.
Fig. 2. Experimental and theoretical tracer response
curves. Liquid-phase dispersion coefficient
Experimental results on the liquid-phase mixing obtained
with the water-air system are shown in Fig. 4, where
typical example of the observed and theoretical the values of the liquid-phase longitudinal dispersion
curves. The difference between the two curves was coefficient, EL, are plotted against the superficial gas
always very small, indicating that the axial dispersion velocity, UG. As shown in this figure, neither the
model explains the phenomenon fairly well. aerated liquid height, ZF, nor the nozzle diameter, do,
affects the dispersion coefficient, while the column
diameter, Dr, has a considerable effect on EL. The
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION effect of the column diameter was determined by
making a cross plot from Fig. 4, and the value of EL
Gas holdup was found to vary as the 1.25 power of the column
The gas holdup data obtained with air and various diameter. In Fig. 5 the values of EL/D+25 calculated
liquids used in the present work are shown in Fig. 3 from all the 10 cm column data and from a part of
and compared with the following empirical equation: the 19 cm column data are plotted against the super-
ficial gas velocity, UG. Data points for each column
fall on a solid line representing the following equation:
eG = 0.505 ~%~‘(72/0)~‘~ (1/&‘.05

EL = (0.15 + 0.69 &“) Dk2’ (6)

which was obtained in the previous work6 for the
gas holdup in aqueous non-electrolyte solutions. Here
u is the liquid surface tension in dyne/cm, pL the where EL is in m2/sec, uG in m/set and DT in m. In
194 H. HIKITA AND H. KIKUKAWA

in the columns with single nozzle gas spargers with

eqn. (6). The observed values of EL are in agreement
with eqn. (6) with an average deviation of 12.0%.

101 , / I I III I 1
I I
6 - Symbol D,, cm Investigator
0 7.7 Akita
L 0 I
15.2 ”
l 30.i ”
h 8.4 Loffttr and Mtrchuk
2 - A 14.6 I.
In 0 Goto et al.
r, . 3;:; II
0 1.0 -
1
W
2 6

2
1’
I I I
0.01 6 8 0.1 2 0.4
0.1
"0' mfstc 0.01 2 4 6 0.1 2 0.4
Fig. 4. Liquid-phase dispersion coefficient for water- mlstc
"G,
air system (effects of aerated liquid height and nozzle
diameter). Fig. 6. Comparison of previous data on liquid-phase
dispersion coefficient for water-air system with eqn. (6)

the range of superficial gas velocities covered in this

work, eqn. (6) can be approximated by:
In Fig. 7, data obtained with the aqueous cane
sugar solution- air system in the 10 cm column are
EL = O.~~U;~‘D+~~ (7) shown. As can be seen in the figure, the liquid-phase
dispersion coefficient decreases with increasing cane
which is represented by a broken line in Fig. 5. sugar concentration. The viscosity of the solution
Figure 6 shows the comparison of the previous including water, PL, ranged from 1.OO to 19.2 CP but
data2*s,7 on EL obtained with the water-air system the surface tension of the solution, u, changed only
slightly from 72.0 to 75.7 dyne/cm. Thus the vertical
difference among the lines in Fig. 7 may be mainly
O6
I due to the difference in the viscosity of the solution.
Figure 8 shows the values of EL read from Fig. 7
at two superficial gas velocities of 0.07 and 0.15 m/set
4
plotted against the liquid viscosity, FL. Data points for
s
Lb- each gas velocity fall on a straight line with a slope of
n
. - 0.12. Thus the value of EL is proportional to the
LA? - 0.12 power of the liquid viscosity. This effect of
liquid viscosity is different from that found in the
o-2
works of Aoyama et al. * and of Akita2. Aoyama
et al. 1 investigated the effect of liquid viscosity on
0.06 6 8 0.1 2 0.4 EL in the 5 cm column with a perforated-plate gas
sparger using air and 61.5 vol. % aqueous glycerol
"G* mistc
solution (11.3 cP), and showed that EL was not
Fig. 5. Liquid-phase dispersion coefficient for water- affected by the liquid viscosity. Akita2 measured
air system (effect of column diameter). the values of EL for the aqueous glycol solution-air
LIQUID-PHASE MIXING IN BUBBLE COLUMNS 195

6 1 I III I I I 11111 I
0, = 10 cm, & = 1.30 cm, Z, = 1.33 m &=lO cm, d,=1.30cm, Z,=1.33m-
L Symbol Aq. solution Symbol Aq. solution
* 35 *I. cane sugar 0 6 % methanol
y” A 50 % cane sugar a 15 % methanol
Y --- water a 53 % methanol
E /’ ---
.
“0 2
x
w’

1.o

0.6
JIllI 1 I I
“G 1
mlsec
06 8 0.1 2 0.2
Fig. 9. Liquid-phase dispersion coefficient for aqueous
"G 1
mlsec methanol solution-air system.
Fig. 7. Liquid-phase dispersion coefficient for aqueous
cane sugar solution-air system.
that the effect of liquid surface tension on EL is un-
important. In Fig. 10, the values of the product
system in the 7.7 and 15.2 cm columns with single E~@,ll) O.'* for the methanol solution-air and the
nozzle gas spargers over a range of liquid viscosities cane sugar solution-air systems at a constant super-
from 0.656 to 8.17 cP, and also found that EL was ficial gas velocity of 0.1 m/set are shown on log-log
independent of the liquid viscosity. coordinates against the liquid surface tension, u. This
indicates that the liquid-phase dispersion coefficient
is independent of the liquid surface tension. This
observation agrees with the findings of Aoyama ef al. l
x 2 and of Akita*. Aoyama et al. 1 studied the effect of
r

4
liquid surface tension on EL using water with and
-E without a surface-active agent as liquids, and found
_ that EL was not affected by the surface tension in
“0 the range from 48.3 to 72.6 dyne/cm. Akita* also
7 14 investigated the effect of liquid surface tension on EL
- Symbols same as in using water containing a surface-active agent and
w’ a -
o.6 11 , ,Figs.4, an; 7, , , aqueous methanol solutions. The values of EL were

1.0 2 4 6 10 2 LO

CLL, C.P.

Fig. 8. Effect of liquid viscosity on liquid-phase dis-

persion coefficient.

Figure 9 presents the data obtained with the

aqueous methanol solution-air system in the 10 cm
column. The surface tension and the viscosity of the
solution including water varied from 72.0 to 38.2
dyne/cm and from 1.OO to 2.02 cP, respectively. The 0, dyne /cm
change in the value of EL due to the variation of Fig. 10. Effect of liquid surface tension on liquid-phase
methanol concentration is very small, and this indicates dispersion coefficient.
196 H. HIKITA AND H. KIKUKAWA

found to be unaffected by the liquid surface tension 0.6 I I I I II I I I

in the range from 28.2 to 74.2 dyne/cm.

From the results described above, the following L_ - cqn.(l)

equation correlating the experimental data was - - - cqnJ9l

obtained:

2
EL = (0.15 + 0.69~~~~)D~~~(l/~~)~~~* (8)

where EL is in m*/sec, UG in m/set, DT in m and PL

0.1
in cP. This equation reduces to eqn. (6) obtained for
6 Symbols same as in -
the water-air system at 20°C when the liquid viscosity
is equal to 1 .O cP. Figure 11 shows the comparison of 0.06 Figr.4. 7 and 9

the values of EL observed in the present work with I Illll I I I

those calculated from eqn. (8). The observed values 0.04 6 8 0.1 2 04

are in good agreement with the calculated values with

an average deviation of 3.0%. Fig. 12. Akita’s correlation of present data on liquid-phase
dispersion coefficient.

0.06
agreement between the present data for the water-air
system and the two empirical equations is reasonable,
and the average deviations for the Akita equation and
the Kato-Nishiwaki equation are 12.5% and 6.0%,
respectively. However, the data points for the
aqueous cane sugar solution-air system are seen to lie
- considerably below the lines representing eqns. (1)
4 1: 2 and (9), indicating that the liquid-phase dispersion
coefficient in bubble columns cannot be correlated by
W
V these simple correlations.
Symbols same as in
Figs. 4.7 and 9
0.01 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to express their thanks to the Science

0.01 2 I 0.06
Research Foundation of the Ministry of Education,
( EL),,~, m2hc Japan, for its financial support.
Fig. 11. Comparison of observed and calculated values of
liquid-phase dispersion coefficient.
NOMENCLATURE
In Fig. 12, the present data are shown according
to the method of correlation proposed by Akita*. C tracer concentration in the column, g mol/l
The solid line represents the Akita equation, eqn. (l), G equilibrium tracer concentration in the
and the broken line indicates the following equation: column, g mol/ 1
G tracer concentration at the injection point,
g mol/ 1
DTUG _ 13@G/fi)
-- Co initial tracer concentration in the column,
(9)
EL 1 + 6.5(ZfG/&g)“.8 g mol/ 1
DT column diameter, m or cm
do diameter of gas inlet nozzle, cm
which was presented by Kato and Nishiwakia for the EL liquid-phase longitudinal dispersion coefficient,
water-air system. As can be seen in this figure, the m*/sec
LIQUID-PHASE MIXING IN BUBBLE COLUMNS 197

gravitational constant, m/sec2 REFERENCES

gravitational conversion factor, kg m/kg
(force) sec2 Y. Aoyama, K. Ogushi, K. Koide and H. Kubota,J. Chem.
P static pressure in the column, kg (force)/m2 Eng. Jupan, I(1968) 158.
t time, set K. Akita, Dr. Eng. Thesis, Kyoto University, 1973.
W. Siemes and W. Weiss, Chem:Ing.-Tech., 29 (1957) 727.
UG superficial gas velocity, m/set K. Ohki and H. Inoue, Chem. Eng. Sci.. 25 (1970) 1.
ZF aerated liquid height, m D. G. Loffler and J. C. Merchuk, Lat. Am. J Chem. Eng.
Z height above the bottom of the column, m andApp1. Chem., 3 (1973) 107.
H. Hikita and H. Kikukawa, Bull. of University of Osaka
Prefecture, A22 (1973). 151.
Greek symbols
Y. Goto, T. Okamoto and T. Terahata, Paper presented at
EG fractional gas holdup, dimensionless the 34th Annual Meeting of the Sot. Chem. Engrs. Japan,
x height of the column filled with tracer, m 1969.
PL density of liquid, kg/m3 or g/cm3 Y. Kato and A. Nishiwaki, Kagaku Kogaku, 35 (1971) 912.

I*L viscosity of liquid, kg/m set or CP

Cl surface tension of liquid, kg/sec2 or dyne/cm