Disclosed is a technology based upon the nesting of tubes to provide chemical reactors or chemical reactors with built in heat exchanger. As a chemical reactor, the technology provides the ability to manage the temperature within a process flow for improved performance, control the location of reactions for corrosion control, or implement multiple process steps within the same piece of equipment. As a chemical reactor with built in heat exchanger, the technology can provide large surface areas per unit volume and large heat transfer coefficients. The technology can recover the thermal energy from the product flow to heat the reactant flow to the reactant temperature, significantly reducing the energy needs for accomplishment of a process.

Vertical reactor (1) for chemical reactions, comprising a tube heat exchanger (6) immersed in a catalytic bed (5), wherein said tube exchanger (6) comprises a plurality of straight tube bundles (6.1, 6.2) with respective tube plates for feeding (9.1, 9.2) and collecting (10.1, 10.2) the heat exchange fluid, and wherein the tube bundles and the respective tube plates are vertically staggered so as to allow access to the shell side.

Various embodiments include a reactor for implementation of equilibrium-limited reactions comprising: a reaction space; a reactant feed; an outlet for reaction products; a device for accommodating catalyst material; and a stirrer device comprising: a hollow shaft with a gas inlet opening at one end of the hollow shaft; a first stirrer paddle with gas exit orifices mounted on the hollow shaft; and a second stirrer paddle mounted on the hollow shaft proximate the device for accommodating the catalyst material.

A reformer tube for producing synthesis gas by steam reforming of hydrocarbon-containing input gases is proposed where an outer shell tube is divided by means of a separating tray into a reaction chamber and an exit chamber, a dumped bed of a steam-reforming-active solid catalyst is arranged in the reaction chamber, at least one heat exchanger tube is arranged inside the reaction chamber and inside the dumped catalyst bed, whose entry end is in fluid connection with the dumped catalyst bed and whose exit end is in fluid connection with the exit chamber, the exit end of the heat exchanger tube is fed through the separating tray and opens out into a corrosion-protected inner tube which is disposed in the interior of the shell tube and is in fluid connection with a collection conduit for the synthesis gas product, and a gas-permeable thermal insulation layer is arranged between the inner wall of the shell tube and the outer wall of the inner tube.

Methods, reactor tubes, reactors, and systems for catalysis are disclosed. A reactor tube includes an outer shell defining a catalyst bed, a catalyst within the catalyst bed, and an inner tube extending through the catalyst bed. An interior of the inner tube is isolated from the catalyst within the catalyst bed. Methods of activating a catalyst are also disclosed herein.

During start-up of a continuous epoxidation of propene with hydrogen peroxide in a methanol solvent with a shaped titanium silicalite catalyst in a tube bundle reactor with a cooling jacket, cooling medium is fed at the rate for full load of the reactor with a constant entry temperature of from 20 C. to 50 C., methanol solvent is fed at a rate of from 50 to 100% for full load of the reactor, hydrogen peroxide is fed at a rate that starts with no more than 10% of the rate for full load and is increased continuously or stepwise to maintain a maximum temperature in the fixed bed of no more than 60 C. and a difference between the maximum temperature in the fixed bed and the cooling medium entry temperature of no more than 20 C., and propene is fed at a rate of from 20 to 100% of the rate for full load, increasing the feeding rate when the molar ratio of propene to hydrogen peroxide reaches the molar ratio for full load.

Disclosed is a technology based upon the nesting of tubes to provide chemical reactors or chemical reactors with built in heat exchanger. As a chemical reactor, the technology provides the ability to manage the temperature within a process flow for improved performance, control the location of reactions for corrosion control, or implement multiple process steps within the same piece of equipment. As a chemical reactor with built in heat exchanger, the technology can provide large surface areas per unit volume and large heat transfer coefficients. The technology can recover the thermal energy from the product flow to heat the reactant flow to the reactant temperature, significantly reducing the energy needs for accomplishment of a process.

Disclosed is a technology based upon the nesting of tubes to provide chemical reactors or chemical reactors with built in heat exchanger. As a chemical reactor, the technology provides the ability to manage the temperature within a process flow for improved performance, control the location of reactions for corrosion control, or implement multiple process steps within the same piece of equipment. As a chemical reactor with built in heat exchanger, the technology can provide large surface areas per unit volume and large heat transfer coefficients. The technology can recover the thermal energy from the product flow to heat the reactant flow to the reactant temperature, significantly reducing the energy needs for accomplishment of a process.

Hydrogen generation assemblies, hydrogen purification devices, and their components, and methods of manufacturing those assemblies, devices, and components are disclosed. In some embodiments, the devices may include an insulation base having insulating material and at least one passage that extends through the insulating material. In some embodiments, the at least one passage may be in fluid communication with a combustion region.

The inventions is directed to a new design for catalyst tubes, which makes it possible to apply the concept of regenerative reforming into steam reformers having catalyst tube inlets and outlets at opposite sides of the furnace chamber. The catalyst tube comprises an inlet for process gas to enter the catalyst tube and an outlet for process gas to exit the catalyst tube, which inlet and outlet are located at opposite ends of the catalyst tube. The catalyst tube further comprises a first annular channel comprising the catalyst, a second annular channel for process gas to flow countercurrently or co-currently to the process gas flowing through the first annular channel.