Hydrodynamics and gas-liquid mass transfer have been investigated in an "Emulsair" reactor with cocurrent downflow of gas and liquid. This consists of a cylindrical tank with conical bottom topped by an emulsion-venturi as the gas-liquid distributor in which the gas is self-aspired by action of the kinetic energy of the liquid recirculation. An original tracer dynamic technique using the CO2-N-2/water system that enables the simultaneous measurement of overall gas hold-up and overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient has been developed and validated using conventional techniques, such as volume expansion for gas hold-up and dynamic oxygenation for mass transfer. It has been shown that gas hold-up and K(L)a(L) can be deduced from the moments of experimental response curves using a CO2 pulse in the gas feed. Experimental results have proved that hydrodynamics and mass transfer in the Emulsair reactor are strongly influenced by the flow regime in the divergent. Two different regimes have been observed depending on the liquid recirculation flow rate: annular and homogeneous bubbling flows. In both regimes, self-aspired gas flow rate, gas hold-up and K(L)a(L) have been reported to increase with the liquid flow rate. The operation effectiveness, estimated from the gas-to-liquid flow rate ratio, has been shown to pass through a maximum around 0.59 as a function of liquid recirculation. A comparison with the literature proved that this maximum is higher than those observed for other kinds of gas-liquid reactors equipped with a venturi. Correlations for mass transfer estimation have been derived and are in agreement with the literature. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.