Ammonia synthesis reactor having parallel feed to plural catalyst beds
AssigneeImperial Chemical Industries PLC
InventorStanley A. Ward
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a reactor suitable for gas-phase catalytic exothermic synthesis, in particular of ammonia or methanol the synthesis gas is reacted in an upstream adiabatic catalytic zone, is cooled in a heat exchanger and then reacted further in a downstream catalytic zone, whereafter preferably it is cooled again, suitably in a boiler or feed water heater, and reacted further in a further catalytic zone. The gas flow through the catalyst is mainly in an axial direction and the pressure drop is kept low by disposing the catalyst in each zone in a plurality of beds fed in parallel from an inlet header and delivered in parallel into an outlet header. The beds may be separately removable from the reactor to facilitate catalyst charging and discharging.
Claims10
An ammonia synthesis reactor comprising
- (a) a cylindrical outer shell, having at least one gas inlet substantially concentric with said shell, and at least one gas outlet;
- said outer shell being capable of sustaining pressure in the range of about 100 to 500 atm. abs.;
- (b) at least two axial catalyst bed sets, including an upstream bed set and a downstream bed set;
- each bed set consisting of a plurality of adiabatic catalyst beds;
- each bed having an inlet and an outlet mutually separated in a direction axial of said cylindrical outer shell, in combination with inlet header means disposed to feed the catalyst beds in parallel and with outlet header means disposed to receive gas from the catalyst beds in parallel;
- (c) a heat exchanger having a cold side in flow communication with said at least one gas inlet of the outer shell and having a hot side in flow communication with the outlet of the upstream bed set and the inlet of the downstream bed set;
- and
- (d) a flow connection from the downstream bed set to a gas outlet of the outer shell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.