The purpose of this investigation is the application of the penetration model for gas absorption with chemical reaction in a stirred reactor and the evaluation of the parameters of the penetration model, viz. the gas-liquid interfacial area and gas-liquid particle contact time, for the different agitation intensities and gas rates.

The values of these parameters for the model were determined by measuring the rates of absorption of carbon dioxide into caustic solutions and then forcing the model to give values of the parameter consistent with observed rates of absorption.

The contact times and interfacial areas were determined for five agitation rates ranging from 150 revolutions of the agitator to 350 and for five gas input rates ranging from superficial gas velocities of 0.29 centimeter per second to about 1.2 centimeters per second. These parameters were evaluated for three different caustic strengths.

The interfacial areas show discrepancies in values for the three different caustic strengths. These results, together with the work of an earlier investigator, seem to suggest that, for design and scale-up purposes for gas absorption in solutions, experiments be set up with the solutions of actual interest.

The interfacial areas obtained correlate well] with the correlations given by Calderbank, which is based on the work of Hinze on bubble sizes in turbulent regimes.

The gas-liquid particle contact times are again found to be dependent on the intensity of agitation and the gas rates. A correlation based on the theory of isotropic turbulence has been proposed and found to correlate the data well.