Analysis of the rise velocity of bubble swarm and sauter mean bubble size in bubble columns using electrical resistance tomography

The rise velocity of bubble swarm and the Sauter mean bubble size of a bubble column reactor are two important parameters of hydrodynamics to determine the specific gas-liquid interfacial area and mass transfer coefficient. These two characteristics have been measured in a small diameter laboratory scale bubble column electrical resistance tomography (ERT). The bubble size distributions were also derived through the analysis of gas disengagement based on the differences of the rise velocity of bubble swarm at the cross section imaged by electrical resistance tomography. The theory of gas disengagement based on ERT methods was developed for estimations of bubble size and bubble rise velocity. Experiement results were in very good agreement with conventional estimation and correlations obtained using pressure transmitter methods. The methodology proposed here could be also used as an analysis tool to quantify and optimize the performance of other types of complex reaction systems.