Monolithic catalyst dehydrogenation reactor
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsWilliam P. Addiego, Stephen A. Campbell, Wei Liu, Mitchell E. Odinak
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Axial flow dehydrogenation reactors comprising multiple catalyst beds formed of honeycomb monoliths, the beds being separated from each other by heating stages to maintain reactant stream temperature, provide low pressure drop and improved conversion efficiency when used alone or in combination with other reactors, e.g., as reactor upgrades for series reactor systems incorporating radial flow reactor stages.
Claims27
An axial flow dehydrogenation reactor comprising:
- a reaction chamber having an inlet and an outlet and containing two or more catalyst beds including an upstream bed and a downstream bed disposed in series along a flow axis traversing the chamber from an upstream to a downstream direction between the inlet and the outlet;
- each catalyst bed being formed of one or more monolithic dehydrogenation catalysts each catalyst incorporating a plurality of open-ended honeycomb channels traversing the catalyst from the upstream to the downstream direction for treating a heated vapor stream containing a hydrogen-containing reactant to at least partially convert the reactant to a dehydrogenated product;
- the catalyst beds being separated by steam or electrical heating means disposed therebetween for re-heating the vapor stream after traverse through the upstream bed and prior to traverse through the downstream bed.
A multiple-stage dehydrogenation reactor comprising:
- a first reactor stage incorporating a first reaction chamber containing at least one catalyst bed formed of one or more monolithic dehydrogenation catalysts, each catalyst having an inlet face, an outlet face, and a plurality of open-ended honeycomb channels traversing the catalyst in a downstream direction from the inlet face toward the outlet face;
- a first chamber inlet for supplying a vapor stream comprising a hydrogen-containing reactant to the monolithic catalyst for conversion of the reactant to a partially dehydrogenated product;
- a first chamber outlet for discharging the vapor stream from the chamber;
- a second reactor stage positioned in the downstream direction from the first reactor stage, the second stage including a second chamber containing a second dehydrogenation catalyst and having a second chamber inlet for admitting the partially dehydrogenated product into the second chamber for treatment by the second catalyst;
- and
- heating means disposed between and connected to the first chamber outlet and the second chamber inlet for heating the vapor stream discharged from the first chamber outlet prior to entry into the second chamber inlet, the vapor stream being heated to a temperature at least sufficient to permit further catalytic dehydrogenation of the hydrogen-containing reactant present in the partially hydrogenated vapor stream upon contact with the second dehydrogenation catalyst disposed in the second reactor stage.
A method for treating a reactant feed stream to dehydrogenate a hydrogen-containing reactant present therein which comprises the steps of:
- heating the reactant stream to a first dehydrogenation reaction temperature and thereafter conveying the stream through a first dehydrogenation reactor containing at least one catalyst bed of monolithic honeycomb dehydrogenation catalysts to effect at least partial dehydrogenation of the reactant, thus to produce a partially dehydrogenated intermediate stream;
- heating the intermediate stream to a second dehydrogenation reaction temperature;
- and
- conveying the intermediate stream through a second dehydrogenation reactor containing at least one catalyst bed of a second dehydrogenation catalyst to effect further dehydrogenation of the intermediate stream, thus to produce a dehydrogenated product stream.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.