Herein are described apparatus and processes for the preparation of cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD) and derivatives thereof. The apparatus and processes described can be used for the one-step, flow-mediated synthesis of cannabidiol and derivatives with improved overall yield, material throughput, and product purity relative to batch processes.

The present invention provides an improved process for removing heat from an exothermic reaction. In particular, the present invention provides a process wherein heat can be removed from multiple reaction trains using a common coolant system.

The present relates to a chemical reactor comprising a catalyst bed enclosed in a reactor vessel and at least one cooling tube placed in the reactor vessel and passing through the catalyst bed, characterized in that the cooling tubes are disposed within the reactor so as to generate thermal gradients of at least 20 C./cm thereby generating hot spots throughout the reactor upon carrying out a reaction. The invention further relates to a methanation process.

Gas streams may be effectively processed using microwave energy in such a way as to significantly reduce processing cost and plant complexity. In the first instance, microwave energy is used to generate a self-catalytic, non-equilibrium plasma, resulting in essentially complete gas reaction at industrial scales of operation. In the second instance, microwave energy is used in combination with conventional catalyst materials to significantly enhance their performance by enabling operation at reduced gas temperatures. In this second instance, the microwave energy may be used either to generate a non-equilibrium plasma or to selectively and directly heat the catalyst material.

A reformer suitable for micro-scale design has horizontal catalyst tube(s) passing through a baffled radiant section for convective and radiant heat transfer to the tube(s). To reduce the footprint and/or to facilitate field assembly a combustion chamber and convection section can be oriented transversely with respect to the radiant section; the tube(s) can be horizontal and/or include structured catalyst; and/or the combustion chamber provides flameless combustion or produces a flame without impinging on the tubes. Also, a skid frame-mountable version of the reformer; and a process for transporting, assembling, and/or operating the steam methane reformer.

Devices, systems, and methods for forming furan based surfactants by reactive distillation are disclosed herein. Various embodiments can provide a consolidated reaction process that uses reactive distillation to synthesize oleo-furan surfactant molecules and intermediates by combining reaction and separation steps into a single reaction unit or a number of connected reaction units. The single reaction unit or a number of connected reaction units can include a catalyst bed and act to separate reaction side products at opposing ends of the unit or units.

A method of revamping vertical converters having a bolt-on flanged pressure shell extension for housing an internal heat exchanger is performed by replacing an existing pressure shell extension with a larger pressure shell extension for housing a plurality of internal heat exchangers.

A process and system for maintaining optimum polymerization production in a loop polymerization reactor by continuously and periodically obtaining polymerization results, such as melt index (MI), production rate and ash content of the polymer produced, determining whether each of the results is within desired ranges, storing and averaging recently obtained results in a database within a reaction rate controller program, and when one of the results is out of the desired range modifying at least one reaction parameter set-point such as monomer concentration, catalyst feed rate and reactor temperature to drive any out-of-range polymerization result(s) toward the desired range for that result.

A process for maintaining an optimum polymerization process in a continuous loop polymerization reactor by driving a catalyst feed range set-point around a bad catalyst set-point range using a bad catalyst feed rate program to vary the catalyst feed rate for differing periods of time between previously determined good catalyst feed rates.

A plant that consumes a reformed gas obtained by reforming a source gas including at least methane and carbon dioxide includes: a reforming device that includes a reforming catalyst for reforming the source gas and an electric power supply member for supplying electric power to the reforming catalyst and that supplies electric power to the reforming catalyst to reform the source gas; and a reformed gas consuming apparatus that consumes the reformed gas A reaction temperature of a reforming reaction of the source gas in the reforming device can be adjusted by adjusting a supply amount of a heating medium including exhaust heat generated due to consumption of the reformed gas in the reformed gas consuming apparatus to the reforming device when heat exchange between the source gas and the heat medium is performed in the reforming gas.