Solid effects on gas–liquid mass transfer in catalytic slurry system of isobutene hydration over fine ion exchange resin particles

To study solid effects on gas–liquid mass transfer in slurry system accompanied by chemical reaction, the experiments of isobutene hydration over fine cation exchanger resin were performed in three-phase slurry catalytic reactor. The mathematical model for the reactor with multi-parameter estimation procedures was developed to obtain the volumetric liquid-side mass transfer coefficient (kLa). The experimental study with different catalyst particle sizes and catalyst solid loadings has shown that gas–liquid mass transfer can be significantly enhanced by chemical reaction on the surface of fine catalyst particles in the liquid film at low solid concentrations. The kLa increases with decreasing catalyst particles mean size, and with increasing catalyst loading.