Catalytic reactor

A method of charging a reactor having inlet and outlet ports with a bed of a particulate catalyst comprising providing a first, perforate, catalyst restraining means to define a central region within the desired catalyst bed and connected to one of said ports, disposing a second particle restraining means between said first catalyst restraining means and the interior wall of said reactor, filling the space between said first and second restraining means with particulate catalyst and filling the space between the second restraining means and the interior wall of the reactor with a particulate material that presents less resistance to flow than said catalyst particles.

A process comprising passing a process fluid through an inlet port of a reactor, then through a series of regions within said reactor, and then through an outlet port of said reactor, wherein the second region is a fixed bed of a particulate catalyst disposed round a central region forming one of the first and third regions and is connected to one of said ports and presents less resistance to flow of said process fluid than said catalyst bed and which central region has a height equal to a major proportion of the height of the bed and, for at least a major part of the height of the catalyst bed, the exterior surface of the catalyst bed has a cross section less than that of the reactor thus leaving a space between the exterior surface of the catalyst bed and the interior walls of the reactor, and this space is filled with a particulate material presenting less resistance to flow than the catalyst particles and forms the other of said first and third regions.