AbstractFractional gas holdup was measured in 0.57, 1.0, and 1.5 m i.d. vessels. Pitched blade downflow turbines (PTD) were used as the impeller. Design details of the impeller, such as the impeller diameter (0.22 T to 0.5 T) and blade width (0.25 D to 0.4 D), were studied. The effect of sparger type, geometry and size on fractional gas hold‐up has been investigated in detail. Four different types of spargers (pipe, conical, ring and concentric ring spargers) were used. Sparger location was varied for all the types studied. Further, design details of the ring sparger, which gave the highest hold‐up were then studied in detail. These included ring diameter, number of holes and hole size. All the reported correlations for fractional gas hold‐up in mechanically agitated gas‐liquid reactors were tested and compared. A better correlation has been developed for pitched blade t