Reactor system for acetylene absorption and selective hydrogenation

A continuous process, comprising:

• passing an acetylene-rich gas stream and a hydrogen stream as one stream or as separate streams to a slurry reactor flowing upwards to a reaction zone in the slurry reactor;
• passing a slurry catalyst comprising catalyst particles and a liquid solvent to the slurry reactor flowing downwards to the reaction zone in the slurry reactor;
• and
• processing acetylene in the acetylene-rich gas stream and hydrogen in the hydrogen stream to convert at least a portion of the acetylene to ethylene in the presence of the slurry catalyst and the hydrogen under hydrogenation reaction conditions to generate an acetylene-lean gas effluent and a spent slurry catalyst comprising spent catalyst particles and the liquid solvent.