A mass transfer coefficient between: a liquid and single sphere and a liquid and column wall in packed and fluidized beds of a spherical inert particle have been studied experimentally using the adsorption method. The experiments were conducted in a column 40 mm in diameter for packed and fluidized beds, and in a two-dimensional column 140 mm×10 mm for the flow past single sphere. In all runs, the mass transfer rates were determined in the presence of spherical glass particles, 3 mm in diameter, for packed and fluidized beds. The mass transfer data were obtained by studying transfer for flow past single sphere, 20 mm in diameter. This paper discusses the possibilities of application of the adsorption method for fluid flow visualization. Local and average mass transfer coefficients were determined from the color intensity of the surface of the foils of silica gel. Correlations, Sh = f(Re) and jD = f(Re), were derived using the mass transfer coefficient data.