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The effects of bubble size, solids particle (impurities) and the respective physical mechanisms on gas–liquid columns have received little attention. Therefore, the objective of this work is to study the effect of solid concentration and the ratio of the bubble diameter to the solid diameter on the mass transfer characteristics. Experiments were conducted in a three phase electroflotation column for the systems gas/water/olive stone. Volumetric mass transfer coefficient, kLa, was measured under different solid concentrations values (1–3 g/l) and ratio of the bubble diameter to the solid diameter values. It was found that the kLa rises when the ratio of the bubble diameter to the solid diameter increase. The presence of solid particle has a negative effect on mass transfer coefficients (kLa,kL and a). The liquid side mass transfer coefficient has the same behavior as the volumetric mass transfer coefficient. The capacity of oxygenation CO was also studied. Models relating the mass transfer coefficients kLa, kL and CO were elaborated in each case using linear regression method.

This work aims to experimentally study the bubble size distribution and the oxygen transfer on the electroflotation process. The distribution of bubbles was measured using a high-speed camera. The measurements were conducted in a three-phase electroflotaion column (water- gas-olive stone) equipped with insoluble electrodes, stainless steel as cathode and titanium, covered with ruthenium oxide, as anode. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient kla was determined for some operating parameters such as current density, solid concentrations and sizes. In order to calculate the global coefficient of mass transfer kl, the specific interfacial area, a, was determined. It was chiefly found that bubble size distribution depends on current density and solid concentration, and the wide range of bubble sizes was found to be affected by the phenomenon of break up and coalescence. kla tended to decrease with the increase of solid concentrations. kl exhibited the same behavior as the volumetric mass transfer coefficient. The experimental results were also fitted with the theoretical models, relating ‘kla’, ‘kl’ and ‘a’ with Reynolds number, Schmidt number and operating conditions.