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US 2006/0037245 A1Published application
Inhibiting of erosion of vessels
AssigneeSasol Technology (Proprietary) Limited
InventorBarend De Klerk
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AssigneeSasol Technology (Proprietary) Limited
InventorBarend De Klerk
Estimating the term…
A method of inhibiting erosion of an interior surface of a process vessel by solid objects carried in a fluid passing over the interior surface includes providing at least one formation at or in close proximity to the interior surface to interfere with the flow of the fluid over the interior surface, and to interfere with the movement of the solid objects by the fluid. The invention extends to a process vessel (10) which includes a body (16) defining an interior vessel surface (20), a catalyst bed (12) in the body (16), retaining means (22) on the catalyst bed for retaining the catalyst bed in position, and at least one formation (26) at or in close proximity to the interior vessel surface above the retaining means for interfering with fluid flow above the retaining means.
1-28. (canceled)
A process vessel which includes
A vessel as claimed in claim 1, in which the retaining means includes a generally horizontally extending layer of tiles or bricks laid on top of the catalyst bed, the layer of tiles or bricks allowing fluid to pass downwardly through the layer, the vessel including a plurality of spaced formations for trapping the whirling solid objects above the layer of tiles or bricks, each formation being defined by a tile or brick in the layer having an increased depth or thickness compared to the depth or thickness of other tiles or bricks in the layer and thus projecting above the other tiles or bricks in the layer.
A vessel as claimed in claim 2, in which the tiles or bricks of increased depth or thickness are located at circumferentially equidistantly spaced peripheral positions in the layer of tiles or bricks.
A vessel as claimed in claim 2, in which some of the tiles or bricks are regular hexagonal in plan view, some are trapezoidal and half of a regular hexagon in plan view, and some are pentagonal shaped in plan view, allowing the tiles or bricks to be laid out next to one another in abutting side by side relationship in a horizontal plane to form a roughly hexagonal plane figure in outline in plan view having extremities which fall on the outline of a hexagon and a circle.
A vessel as claimed in claim 2, in which at least some of the bricks or tiles include a plurality of passages extending therethrough between an opening in a top surface and an opening in a bottom surface of each of said some bricks or tiles, at least 15% of a top surface area of each apertured brick or tile being occupied by the openings of the passages.
A vessel as claimed in claim 5, in which the percentage of the top surface area of each apertured brick or tile occupied by the openings is at least 20%, at least some centrally located bricks or tiles having no passages.
A vessel as claimed in claim 2, in which a ratio between the depth or thickness of the bricks or tiles having an increased depth or thickness to the depth or thickness of the other bricks or tiles in the layer is between 1.5:1 and 2:1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.