A small scale isotropic mass transfer model was developed for the local liquid side mass transfer coefficients in gas-liquid-solid three-phase flow airlift loop reactor for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. It is based on Higbie's penetration theory and Kolmogoroff's theory of isotropic turbulence with k(1) = 3root2Depsilon(1)(1/3)/pi(eta(1)(-1/3)-lambda(f)(-1/3)), where epsilon(1) is local rate of energy dissipation, lambda(f) is the local microscale, eta(1), is the local Kolmogoroff scale and D is the diffusion coefficient. The capability of the proposed model is discussed in the light of experimental data obtained from 12 L gas-liquid-solid three-phase flow airlift loop reactor using Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. Good agreement with the experimental data was obtained over a wide range of conditions suggesting a general applicability of the proposed model.