The mass transfer around a rising bubble has been studied within the field of glass melting processes. Due to the large value of liquid viscosity, creeping flow was used. The rising bubble is assumed to have a clean interface with a total mobility and the exact solution of Hadamard or Rybczynski was used to define the velocity field around the bubble. The mass transfer of oxygen in the soda-lime-silica glass melt where oxidation-reduction reactions of iron oxides occur is also described. The dimensionless mass transfer coefficient, Sherwood number, was determined as a function of the Peclet number based on the terminal rise velocity of the bubble. Two different techniques have been used: the first based on the boundary layer theory and the second using a finite element method. In order to take into account the oxidation-reduction reaction in a unified framework, a modified Peclet number has been defined as a function of two dimensionless numbers. The first is strongly linked to the equilibrium constant of the chemical reaction and the second is the glass saturation, defined as the ratio of oxygen concentration in the bulk to that at the bubble surface. The Sherwood number, taking into account the chemical reactions, increases with iron content as well as with glass reduction (i.e. small saturation level). From an application point of view, the determination of a modified Peclet number is important because it is possible to use a similar expression (determined without the reaction) by replacing the classical Peclet number by the modified one proposed herewithin. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.