Described is an industrial scale chemical reactor or reactor containing a shell having an inner wall, and at least one channel inside the shell. The shell has a circular, square, or rectangular cross-sectional area. All of the internal dimensions of the channel are greater than 10 mm, and optionally less than 50 mm. The channel has a rectangular cross-sectional area, and contains a catalyst bed containing catalyst particles and/or pieces containing catalyst particles packed inside the channel. The reactor has improved shell volume utilization, catalyst loading capacities, heat exchange efficiency, process intensification, or combinations thereof, compared to currently existing reactors. Exothermic reactions, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis can be performed inside the channels of the reactor. Also described are methods of making the reactor.

A stacked zone vertical tubular reactor for conducting an exothermic reaction. The reactor may comprise two or more stacked catalyst zones in each reactor tube. Each reactor tube may contain internal feed and discharge tubes, transition zones comprising a catalyst support plate and a zone separator plate, and a heat transfer element located in each catalyst zone.

The present invention relates to a method for producing unsaturated aldehydes and unsaturated carboxylic acids. According to the present invention, a method for producing unsaturated aldehydes and unsaturated carboxylic acids which can impart activity and control temperature independently in fixed catalyst layer zones in a shell-and-tube reactor, thereby exhibiting improved yield and operation stability, is provided.

A process for producing ethylene by oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane using a shell-and-tube reactor having reaction tubes extending between a first end and a second end includes disposing one or more catalyst beds in each of the reaction tubes. In each of the reaction tubes, a ratio of a total length of the one or more catalyst beds between the first end and the second end to a diameter of each of the reaction tubes has a value between 150 and 400. The shell-and-tube reactor is operated at a linear velocity of 250 to 800 cm/s, and the one or more catalyst beds are configured such that a ratio of active catalyst mass to effective cooling area is in a range between 1.5 and 5 kg/m.sup.2.

A method for producing a target compound includes distributing a feed mixture at a temperature in a first temperature range to a plurality of parallel reaction tubes of a shell-and-tube reactor, and subjecting the feed mixture in first tube sections of the reaction tubes to heating to a temperature in a second temperature range and in second tube sections of the reaction tubes arranged downstream of the first tube sections to oxidative catalytic conversion using one or more catalysts. A gas mixture flowing out of the second tube sections is brought into contact in third tube sections arranged downstream of the second tube sections with a catalyst which has a volumetric activity below the highest volumetric activity of the one or the plurality of catalysts arranged in the second tube sections. A gas mixture from the third tube sections is withdrawn from the shell-and-tube reactor without further catalytic conversion.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing an olefin oxide from a reaction mixture stream in an epoxidation reactor R, wherein R contains z active reaction tubes T(i) arranged in parallel, z?2, i=1 . . . z, wherein each T(i) comprises a reaction zone Z(i) comprising a heterogeneous epoxidation catalyst, said reaction mixture stream comprising x components C(j), x?3, j=1 . . . x, the process comprising (i) providing m educt streams E(k), m?1, k=1 . . . m, wherein each E(k) exhibits a mass flow rate F.sub.E(k) and comprises y components C(j), y=1 . . . x, wherein a given component C(j) is contained in at least one E(k); (ii) dividing each E(k) into n educt substreams S(k,i), n?z, each S(k,i) exhibiting a mass flow rate F.sub.s(k,i), wherein to at least one E(k), the inequality (1) applies: Formulas (1), (2), (3), (iii) providing n reaction mixtures streams M(i) comprising the x components C(j), said providing comprising, for each i, either combining and admixing the n educt substreams S(k,i) obtaining the n reaction mixtures M(i) if m>1, or passing on the n educt substreams S(k,i) as the n reaction mixtures M(i) if m=1; (iv) feeding each M(i) obtained according to (iii) into Z(i) and contacting each M(i) in Z(i) with the epoxidation catalyst under epoxidation reaction conditions; wherein the x components C(j) comprise hydrogen peroxide, an organic solvent, and the olefin. The present invention further relates to an olefin oxide obtained or obtainable from said process.

A process for producing a target compound includes forming a feed mixture containing at least one reactant compound. The feed mixture is distributed to parallel reaction tubes of one or more shell-and-tube reactors and subjected to oxidative catalytic conversion in the reaction tubes. Steam is added to the feed mixture in an amount such that a steam fraction of the feed mixture is 5 to 95 vol %, oxygen is added to the feed mixture in the form of a fluid containing at least 95 vol % oxygen, and the oxidative catalytic conversion is carried out using one or more catalysts containing the metals molybdenum, vanadium, niobium and optionally tellurium.

A tubular reactor that produces maleic anhydride from a gas mixture containing n-butane and oxygen includes a first reaction zone including an inlet for the gas mixture and a second reaction zone including an outlet for a reaction gas mixture, a plurality of tubes extending in an axial direction through the first and second reaction zones, a temperature control system, configured for controlling a reaction temperature in each of the reaction zones independently, includes a heat transfer system for each of the reaction zones configured for controlling the temperature of a liquid coolant flowing through one of the reaction zones, and a circulation pumping system configured for controlling flow conditions of the liquid coolant flowing through the reactor and one of the heat transfer systems, and a preheating arrangement configured for preheating the gas mixture such that the gas mixture enters the first reaction zone at a predefined inlet temperature.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for achieving degradation of ethers.

Chemical reactor comprising an educt space with inlet means for feeding at least one educt stream into said space: a product space with outlet means for removing at least one product stream from said space: a plurality of parallel tubes extending from the educt space to the product space in an axial direction, forming a tube bundle, wherein the tubes comprise at least one heterogeneous catalyst: a cooling liquid space surrounding at least a section of the tube bundle, wherein said space has an inlet and an outlet spaced from the inlet at least in the axial direction, and wherein the cooling liquid space defines a cooling liquid flow path between inlet and outlet: n cooling liquid temperature measuring devices MD(i), i=1 . . . n, n>2, inside the cooling liquid space, wherein MD(i+1), is located upstream of MD(i) in the cooling liquid flow path.