Method for carrying out a chemical reaction in an upflow reactor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for carrying out a catalysed chemical reaction using one or more liquid reactants, preferably acetone and phenol to form bisphenol A, in an upflow reactor comprising feeding at least a portion of said reactants to a bottom section of the reactor positioned below a flow distributor plate, passing said portion through the flow distributor plate, passing said portion through a layer of inert particles positioned above and preferably in contact with said flow distributor plate, passing said portion through a catalyst layer comprising a particulate catalyst, said catalyst layer being positioned above and in contact with said layer of inert particles, wherein the reactants react to form a product stream, collecting said product stream via collecting means positioned above said catalyst layer. The invention also relates to a reactor assembly. The catalyst is a core-shell catalyst which is manufactured by graft polymerizing aromatic vinyl compounds onto the hydroxylated and functionalized core particles, followed by sulfonation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.