Mass Transfer

Rates of gas-liquid, liquid-liquid, and solid-liquid mass transfer are important and often control the overall rates in bioprocesses. The overall coefficients of liquid-liquid mass transfer are important in the calculations for extraction equipment, and can be defined in the same way as the overall coefficients of gas-liquid mass transfer. The types of mass transfer equipment are: packed column, packings, bubble column, and packed bed. The models provided for Mass Transfer at the Interface are: Stagnant Film Model, Penetration Model, and Surface Renewal Model. Occasionally gas absorption is accompanied by chemical or biological reactions in the liquid phase. Film coefficients of mass transfer inside or outside tubes are important in membrane processes using tube-type or the so-called “hollow fiber” membranes. The effective interfacial areas for absorption with a chemical reaction in packed columns are the same as those for physical absorption, except that absorption is accompanied by rapid, second-order reactions.