Method and installation for carrying out a three phase chemical reaction under pressure
AssigneeCompagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires
InventorsPietro Bilardello, Nicolas Durupt, Renaud Pontier
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Abstract
A gas siphon type reactor (10) is used to carry out a three phase chemical reaction under pressure, such as the reduction of uranyl nitrate to uranous nitrate by hydrogen, in the presence of a catalyst made up of platinum on a silica carrier. The control of the pressure in the reactor (10) is provided by regulating the liquid and gas flow rates from a high pressure separator (52), into which the liquid and the gas leaving the reactor (10) are routed. The liquid in the reactor (10) is tapped from a lateral branch pipe (32) fitted with a filter (36) and emerging in the upper area (30), behind a profiled wall (34).
Claims7
Method of carrying out a three phase chemical reaction under pressure that involves a gas phase and two non-gaseous phases, at least one of which is liquid, said method comprising the following steps:
- circulating, in a closed loop and co-currently two non-gaseous phases, in a reactor, by injection of the gas phase into the bottom of a central region of the reactor, in a way that creates an ascending circulation in said central region and a descending circulation in the annular region of the reactor, separated from the central region by a cylindrical partition;
- separation and recovery, in an upper region of the reactor, of excess gas phase and a liquid is fraction;
- separate routing of the excess gas phase and the liquid fraction into a separator outside the reactor;
- and
- regulation of the pressure in the reactor and the level in the separator, by adjustment of a gas flow rate and a liquid flow rate leaving the separator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.