Although there is a voluminous literature on the estimation of interphase transport parameters in conventional slurry bubble column reactors, these correlations are inadequate in photoreactors equipped with specialized internals to facilitate light harvesting efficiency of the photocatalyst. This is particularly germane to the present externally illuminated bubble column reactor containing titania-coated plates immersed in the liquid column at different angles of inclination. Thus, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) procedure utilizing the Eulerian-Eulerian approach has been used to solve the governing differential equations for the solid liquid mass transport problem based on the standard k-epsilon model incorporating additional terms that take account of the interfacial turbulent momentum transfer. Mass transfer from the surface of the coated-quartz plates to the liquid phase was modeled using the Launder-Spalding wall functions. The plates were coated with benzoic acid as solid substrate with water and air as the liquid and gas phases, respectively. The increase in mass transfer due to reduction of the boundary layer thickness during air-induced liquid recirculation on either side of the submerged inclined plates was correlated with difference between turbulent and molecular Schmidt numbers via an adjustable parameter, A. CFD simulation using the Launder-Spalding wall function (with A = 1.08) gave better agreement with experimental transient concentration profiles than calculations based on FLUENTs enhanced wall function for the plate orientations (theta = 0 degrees, 22.5 degrees, and 45 degrees) studied. The solid-to-liquid mass transfer was higher on the lower-side of the plate than the upper-side. In particular, mass transfer coefficient was higher with the inclined plate than with the vertical or horizontal orientation suggesting an added advantage for the application of the system as a solar photoreactor. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved,