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US 7,316,804 B2Granted
Flow reactors for chemical conversions with heterogeneous catalysts
AssigneeIneos USA LLC
InventorsHassan Taheri, Curtis D. Dickinson, Paul A. Jacobson
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AssigneeIneos USA LLC
InventorsHassan Taheri, Curtis D. Dickinson, Paul A. Jacobson
Estimating the term…
Improved apparatus for use in process systems which include exothermic chemical conversions of organic compounds to value added products is disclosed, more particularly, flow reactors for exothermic chemical conversions using a fixed heterogeneous catalyst with means for control of the exotherm. Flow reactors of the invention comprise a plurality of walled conduits each having an outer surface disposed for contact with a heat-transfer medium, an inlet distribution manifold adapted for flow communication with a downstream manifold through channels formed by heterogeneous catalytic material disposed within each conduit during operation in a sequence of zones for catalyst having the same or different length along the longitudinal coordinate of the conduit and within each zone essentially uniform cross-section of the conduit measured in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal coordinate thereby defining volume of the zone, and the sequence of zones comprising of at least two zones such that each downstream zone has a larger or smaller cross-section than the contiguous upstream zone. Another aspect of the invention includes processes which use such flow reactors, for example the continuous manufacture of maleic anhydride.
A flow reactor comprising a plurality of walled conduits each having an outer surface disposed for contact with a heat-transfer medium, an inlet distribution manifold adapted for flow communication with a downstream manifold through channels formed by heterogeneous catalytic material disposed within each conduit during operation in a sequence of zones for catalyst having the same or different length along a longitudinal coordinate of the conduit and within each zone essentially uniform cross-section of the conduit measured in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal coordinate thereby defining volume of the zone, and the sequence of zones comprising at least two zones such that each downstream zone has a different cross-section than a contiguous upstream zone and wherein the cross-section of the conduit in each zone has a substantially circular form with a diameter such that the third power of the diameter is equal to the product of the volume and a geometric factor having values in a range from about 0.01 to about 0.50.
A flow reactor comprising a plurality of walled conduits each having an outer surface disposed for contact with a heat-transfer medium, an inlet distribution manifold adapted for flow communication with a downstream manifold through channels formed by heterogeneous catalytic material disposed within each conduit during operation in a sequence of zones for catalyst having the same or different length along a longitudinal coordinate of the conduit and within each catalyst-containing zone essentially uniform cross-section of the conduit measured in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal coordinate thereby defining volume of each catalyst-containing zone, and the sequence of catalyst-containing zones comprising at least four catalyst-containing zones such that each downstream catalyst-containing zone has a larger total cross-section than the contiguous upstream catalyst-containing zone, and wherein at least three of the downstream catalyst-containing zones has a larger total volume than the contiguous upstream catalyst-containing zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.