Experimental study of interfacial mass transfer in a slug flow of ethanol - CO2 mixture in a rectangular microchannel

The structure of a slug gas-liquid flow and interfacial mass transfer during the flow of ethanol-N2 and ethanol-CO(2 )mixtures in a horizontal rectangular microchannel have been experimentally studied. The experiments were carried out in a straight microchannel with a cross section of 380 x 190 mu m. To determine a change in the volume of a gas bubble along the microchannel length, the method of high-speed visualization with digital processing was applied. In a wide range of gas flow rates, the bubble frequency and the volume of gas bubbles and their velocity were measured, and the volumetric coefficient of mass transfer from liquid was determined for the ethanol-CO2 mixture. A physically substantiated model of interfacial mass transfer for a slug flow in a channel of rectangular cross section, which takes into account the circulation flow in a liquid slug, was proposed.