This
study investigates the use of a novel static mixer to intensify
the physical absorption of CO2 in water. To assess the
efficiency of this tubular reactor, the temporal variation of absorbed
CO2 was tracked along the reactor using three methods,
namely, inline pH measurements, direct CO2 measurements
using a CO2 analyzer, and titration. The effect of varying
the liquid and gas flow rates on the mass transfer performance was
investigated and analyzed. This article focuses on a comparison between
the three methods of measurements to highlight differences in their
results and sources of error. The findings demonstrated the reliability
of the titration technique in quantifying dissolved CO2 concentrations when compared to the other two methods. In addition,
it was found that the measured volumetric mass transfer coefficients, k
L
a, for this reactor were several
orders of magnitude larger than those reported using conventional
reactors such as mechanically agitated tanks and bubble columns. The
values of k
L
a reached
a maximum of 0.83 s–1 at low specific energy consumption
rates (≈0.016 kWh/t) within 0.35 s of residence time in the
reactor/contactor.