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US 5,405,586 AGranted
Radial flow heat exchanging reactor
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorWilliam J. Koves
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An isothermal reactor design uses interleaved layers of plate heat exchange elements to improve heat transfer in a radial flow arrangement that offers a simple and compact design for fluid flow and catalyst transfer.
Claims13
A reactor apparatus for directly contacting a reactant stream with a catalyst and indirectly contacting the reactant stream with a heat exchange stream, said arrangement comprising:
- a) a cylindrical reactor vessel;
- b) a central conduit extending axially within said vessel for distributing or collecting a fluid;
- c) a plurality of heat exchange plates radiating from said central conduit and sectoring an annular volume defined in part by said central conduit into a plurality of radial flow channels;
- d) means for occluding the outer circumference of said flow channels;
- e) an annular chamber located about and defined by the outer circumference of said flow channels for distributing or collecting a fluid;
- f) means for communicating a first portion of said flow channels with said central conduit and said annular chamber;
- g) an inner web and an outer web extending axially through a second portion of said flow channels and transversely bridging the channel space between adjacent heat exchange plates to subdivide said second portion of said flow channels and define an inner chamber between said inner web and said central conduit for distributing or collecting fluid, a central volume between said inner and outer webs, and an outer chamber between said outer web and said means for occluding the outer circumference for distributing or collecting fluid;
- and,
- h) apertures defined at least in part by said webs for communicating said central volume with said inner chamber and said outer chamber.
6 more elements
The A reactor apparatus for directly contacting a reactant stream with a catalyst and indirectly contacting the reactant stream with a heat exchange stream, said arrangement comprising:
- a) a cylindrical reactor vessel;
- b) a central conduit extending axially within said vessel for distributing a heat exchange fluid;
- c) a plurality of heat exchange plates radiating from said central conduit and sectoring an annular volume defined in part by said central conduit into a plurality of heat exchange channels interleaved with reactant channels;
- d) an annular chamber for collecting a heat exchange fluid defined by the outer circumference of said flow channels and said cylindrical reactor vessel;
- e) an outer segment for closing the outer circumference of said reactant channels and occluding the outer circumference of said heat exchange channels, said segment defining a plurality of apertures communicating said heat exchange channels with said annular chamber;
- f) a plurality of apertures defined by said central conduit for communicating said heat exchange channels with said annular chamber;
- g) an inner and an outer web extending axially through said reactant channels and transversely bridging the reactant channel space between adjacent heat exchange plates to subdivide said reactant flow channels and define an inner chamber between said inner web and said central conduit for collecting reactants, a central volume between said inner and outer webs for retaining catalyst particles, and an outer web and said outer segment for distributing reactants;
- and
- h) apertures defined by said webs for communicating said central volume with said inner chamber and said outer chamber.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.