Moving bed radial flow reactor for high gas flow

A radial flow bed arrangement for contacting particulate material with a gaseous material, said arrangement comprising:

• (a) a vertically oriented centerpipe having a plurality of perforations and a hollow interior for gas transfer;
• (b) a vertically elongated retention screen surrounding said centerpipe and defining an annular retention space between said centerpipe and said retention screen for retaining particles, and together with said centerpipe defining an annular retention opening at the top of said annular retention space;
• (c) means for transferring gaseous material across said centerpipe and said outer retention screen to establish gas flow across said annular retention space;
• (d) an imperforate cover plate covering said annular retention opening at its lower end to retain particles in said retention space, said cover plate defining a particle inlet opening at its uppermost end, said particle inlet opening having an annular shape that extends over the entire annulus of said annular retention opening and a total cross-sectional area that equals less than half of the cross-sectional area of said annular retention opening, and said cover plate having a first surface facing the inside of said retention space that extends from said inlet opening to said centerpipe and a second surface that extends from said inlet opening to said outer retention screen and each of said surfaces slopes downward from said inlet opening;
• (e) at least one duct extended vertically from and in communication with the entire annular length of said particle inlet opening for transferring particles into said particle retention space and holding particles above said particle inlet opening;
• and
• (f) means for intermittently withdrawing particles from the bottom of said particle retention space.

In an apparatus for contacting a bed of particulate material with a radial gas flow comprising a pair of vertically and horizontally elongated partitions, in a spaced apart relationship, said partitions at least partially defining a particle retention space and a retention space opening at an upper locus of said partitions for passing particles into said retention space and said partitions having a plurality of perforations to permit transfer of the gaseous material across said particle retention space and said particle retention space opening having a transverse length, coextensive with the horizontal length of said partitions, a top bed closure at least partially defining the top of said particle retention space, said closure having an imperforate cover plate overlying said retention space opening and defining a top bed closure inlet opening at an upper locus of said top closure and said top bed closure inlet opening lying in a horizontal plane and having a smaller cross-sectional area than the cross-sectional area of said retention space opening, and means for passing particular material into said top bed closure inlet opening;

• the improvement, wherein said top bed closure inlet opening extends horizontally over the transverse length of said particle retention space opening, said cover plate has at least one surface facing the inside of said retention space, that extends from said top closure inlet opening to one of said partitions and slopes downward from the periphery of said inlet opening at an angle of, and said means for passing particulate material into said top bed closure inlet opening passes particulate material into said top bed closure inlet opening over the entire horizontal length of said inlet opening and resists upward pressure of particulate material out of said top bed closure inlet opening.