Large scale · Work package D
The pilot-scale facility is designed to investigate gas–liquid flow behaviour and CO₂ mass transfer under operating conditions representative of industrial systems. The setup consists of a cylindrical bubble column (0.40 m in diameter and 5.0 m in height), equipped with a counter-current liquid recirculation loop and advanced instrumentation for local and global measurements.
Doppler probes installed at different heights provide local measurements of gas holdup, bubble size distribution and bubble velocity, while a Wire-Mesh Sensor enables high-resolution measurements of cross-sectional void fraction distributions, interfacial area concentration and bubble chord lengths. Pressure transmitters provide additional information on global gas holdup, pressure fluctuations and flow regime characteristics.
To investigate mass transfer performance, pH and conductivity probes positioned along the column monitor changes in liquid properties and composition during CO₂ absorption. Gas flow measurements at the inlet and outlet enable the assessment of CO₂ absorption rates and overall mass transfer performance under different operating conditions.
The facility provides a comprehensive experimental database for characterizing the coupling between hydrodynamics and mass transfer, supporting the development and validation of multiphase flow and mass transfer models at pilot scale.
- Column — 5.0 m height, 0.40 m diameter, 2.5 m initial liquid level, liquid recirculation, gas sparger region 0.40 m
- Spargers — Interchangeable perforated plates with different hole diameters
- Global measurements — Gas holdup, gas disengagement, global mass transfer
- Local measurements — Three optical probes (void fraction, bubble size, velocity), wire-mesh sensors, image analysis near the sparger and at different radial/axial positions
Measurement set-up
