Gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient of methane in bubble column reactor

Biological conversion of methane gas has been attracting considerable recent interest. However, methanotropic bioreactor is limited by low solubility of methane gas in aqueous solution. Although a large mass transfer coefficient of methane in water could possibly overcome this limitation, no dissolved methane probe in aqueous environment is commercially available. We have developed a reactor enabling the measurement of aqueous phase methane concentration and mass transfer coefficient (k(L)a). The feasibility of the new reactor was demonstrated by measuring k(L)a values as a function of spinning rate of impeller and flow rate of methane gas. Especially, at spinning rate of 300 rpm and flow rate of 3.0 L/min, a large k(L)a value of 102.9 h (1) was obtained.