Drop-Size Analysis in a Two-Phase Reactive Liquid-Liquid System on a Bubble-Cap Tray

In the present work, the drop-size distribution is investigated in a reactive liquid-liquid system on a bubble-cap tray. The transesterification reaction between glycerol and methyl oleate is taken as a case of the two-phase liquid-liquid reaction. A microphotographic technique was used to photograph the drops directly in the liquid-liquid dispersion. The drop-size distribution is studied with and without reaction at different gas flow rates with a high dispersed-phase fraction. The drop-size distribution is fitted by normal and log-normal distributions. A weak dependency of the gas velocity on the Sauter mean diameter is found for the nonreacting system (d32 G0.17). No significant effect of the gas velocity could be seen for the reacting system.