Device for dispersing gas into a liquid

Claim 1

A dispersing device for dispersing a gas into a liquid or slurry, which comprises: a cell for containing the liquid or slurry, a rotor on a hollow rotor shaft rotatable about a vertical axis and disposed in said cell below the level of liquid or slurry, the shaft having means connectable to a source of gas, and the rotor having a dispersion surface essentially constituted by a mantle surface at the periphery of the rotor, blades forming vertical walls over substantially the entire height of the rotor and gas gaps over the entire rotor height communicating with the shaft for bringing the gas to the dispersion surface; a stator comprising vertical vanes disposed within said cell extending radially outwardly with respect to said shaft and surrounding the rotor, said stator defining, together with the rotor, an annular space therebetween for the liquid to be rotated as a ring by the rotor, said stator opposing the rotation of the liquid and causing turbulence in said annular space, said rotor and stator being of substantial height, coextensive over their heights and so shaped that the annular space therebetween widens downwardly along substantially the whole of the rotor height, the ringshaped body of liquid so formed creating a dynamic pressure and thereby compensating for the hydrostatic pressure across the height of the rotor.