Jonas Schulz, Kevin Schäfer, Hans-Jörg Bart

• This contribution presents a novel approach to investigate entrainment in distillation and absorption columns. An image-based probe allows precise droplet detection at various radial and axial positions above trays. Validations achieve an aver-age error of 6.4 % (monospheres 9.2–114.4mm) and 3 % (monodisperse droplet stream up to 19 m s–1and 74.5mm).Experiments in a DN 450 cold flow test rig show an increasing (decreasing) share of larger droplets with higher gas (liq-uid) loads. Locally measured droplet sizes depend on probe position as well as tray design and enable an extrapolation tointegral entrainment rates.