AbstractThe hydrodynamic behavior of a bubble column has been studied for various Newtonian and non‐Newtonian liquids (water, glycerol, carboxymethylcellulose and polyacrylamide solutions). The mixing time, the power consumption, the circulation time and the gas hold‐up have been measured in a cylindrical column (diameter: 0.254 m, height: 0.9 m) for three air sparger plates with different numbers and distributions of 1 mm diameter orifices. It is shown that the mixing efficiency decreases as the viscosity or the shear‐thinning and elastic properties of the liquid increase. The viscosity of the liquid has little influence on the gas hold‐up which is, however, strongly affected by the sparger plate characteristics and increases as the liquid phase becomes more elastic. A model for predicting gas hold‐up is