To provide a bubble column having excellent characteristics of quickly and surely detecting abnormal bubbling of liquid in the vicinity of a liquid level in the bubble column by a relatively simple apparatus and a method for operating the bubble column.
The bubble column has a differential pressure type flow meter for bubble detection at the position of a vapor phase part of the upper part of a liquid level in the bubble column. The output of the differential pressure type flow meter is continuously measured and occurrence of abnormal bubbling in a liquid in the vicinity of a liquid level in the bubble column is detected by change of measured indicator. The bubble column is applied to a bioreactor such as a gas-liquid reactor, waste water and exhaust gas processing units, fermentation tank, culture tank, etc. Preferably a design specific gravity 1 of the differential pressure type flow meter for bubble detection is smaller than a liquid specific gravity 0 after gas-liquid separation from the viewpoint of proper bubble detection and preferably the design specific gravity 1 of the differential pressure type flow meter and the liquid specific gravity 0 after the gas-liquid separation satisfy formula (1): 0.01010.70.
Toru Sakamoto
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