A novel micro-structured bubble column reactor (MSBC) is studied by a combined experimental and simulation approach, for the chemisorption of CO2 into NaOH. To understand the reactor behavior different reactor configurations are tested for chemisorption by varying the internals (single wire mesh, staged wire meshes, Sulzer packing). Bubble size distribution, pH and holdup data are obtained from chemisorption experiments using an advanced digital image analysis technique. The effect of superficial gas velocities ranging from 5 to 25 mm/s and varying number of wire mesh stages (1, 6 and 10) is deduced from the experiments. The experimental results are used for the validation of the detailed VoF-DBM simulations. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.