The present disclosure provides oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) systems for small scale and world scale production of olefins. An OCM system may comprise an OCM subsystem that generates a product stream comprising C.sub.2+ compounds and non-C.sub.2+ impurities from methane and an oxidizing agent. At least one separations subsystem downstream of, and fluidically coupled to, the OCM subsystem can be used to separate the non-C.sub.2+ impurities from the C.sub.2+ compounds. A methanation subsystem downstream and fluidically coupled to the OCM subsystem can be used to react H.sub.2 with CO and/or CO.sub.2 in the non-C.sub.2+ impurities to generate methane, which can be recycled to the OCM subsystem. The OCM system can be integrated in a non-OCM system, such as a natural gas liquids system or an existing ethylene cracker.

A reactor having a shell comprising one or more reactor tubes located within the shell, said reactor tube or tubes comprising a plurality of catalyst receptacles containing catalyst; means for providing a heat transfer fluid to the reactor shell such that the heat transfer fluid contacts the tube or tubes; an inlet for providing reactants to the reactor tubes; and an outlet for recovering products from the reactor tubes; wherein the plurality of catalyst receptacles containing catalyst within a tube comprises catalyst receptacles containing catalyst of at least two configurations.

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.

A bi-modal radial flow reactor comprising: a cylindrical outer housing surrounding at least five cylindrical, concentric zones, including at least three annulus vapor zones including an outer annulus vapor zone, a middle annulus vapor zone, and a central annulus vapor zone, and at least two catalyst zones, including an outer catalyst zone and an inner catalyst zone, wherein the outer catalyst zone is intercalated with the outer annulus vapor zone and the middle annulus vapor zone, and wherein the inner catalyst zone is intercalated with the middle annulus vapor zone and the central annulus vapor zone; and a manifold configured to introduce a feed vertically into a bottom end of each of one or two of the at least three annulus vapor zones, and remove a product from a bottom end of each of the one or two remaining of the at least three annulus vapor zones.

A method for facilitating the distribution of the flow of one or more streams within a bed vessel is provided. Disposed within the bed vessel are internal materials and structures including multiple operating zones. One type of operating zone can be a processing zone composed of one or more beds of solid processing material. Another type of operating zone can be a treating zone. Treating zones can facilitate the distribution of the one or more streams fed to processing zones. The distribution can facilitate contact between the feed streams and the processing materials contained in the processing zones.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of producing tungsten hexafluoride by reacting tungsten with a fluorine-containing gas at a temperature of 800 C. or higher. The method according to the present invention is advantageous in that the amount of production of the tungsten hexafluoride per unit capacity of the reaction vessel is increased as compared to conventional techniques of producing tungsten hexafluoride from a fluorine-containing gas and metal tungsten while controlling the reaction temperature to 400 C. or lower. It is preferable that the reaction vessel is equipped with a coolant jacket for maintaining an inner wall temperature of the reaction vessel at 400 C. or lower.

A system and a method for dehydrogenating isobutane to isobutylene are disclosed. The system comprises a fixed bed dehydrogenation reactor. The fixed reactor bed in the fixed bed dehydrogenation reactor includes a catalyst layer, a first material adapted to improve the flow distribution in the fixed reactor bed, a second material adapted to improve the thermal distribution in the fixed reactor bed, and a third material adapted to improve both the flow distribution and the thermal distribution in the fixed reactor bed. The first material covers a top, a bottom, and at least a portion of a side surface of the catalyst layer of the fixed reactor bed. The second material and the third material both are evenly distributed in the catalyst layer.

A method for directly producing methyl acetate and/or acetic acid from syngas, carried out in at least two reaction zones, including: feeding a raw material containing syngas into a first reaction zone to contact and react with a metal catalyst; allowing an obtained effluent to enter a second reaction zone directly or after the addition of carbon monoxide so as to contact and react with a solid acid catalyst; separating the obtained effluent to obtain product of acetate and/or acetic acid, and optionally returning a residual part to enter the first reaction zone and/or the second reaction zone to recycle the reaction. This provides a novel method for directly converting syngas into methyl acetate and/or acetic acid. Further, the product selectivity of the product of methyl acetate or acetic acid is greater than 93%, and the quantity of methyl acetate and acetic acid may be adjusted according to processing.

Systems and methods are provided for conversion of gas phase reactants including CO and H.sub.2 to C.sub.2+ products using multiple catalysts in a single reactor while reducing or minimizing deactivation of the catalysts. Separate catalysts can be used that correspond to a first catalyst, such as a catalyst for synthesis of methanol from synthesis gas, and a second catalyst, such as a catalyst for conversion of methanol to a desired C.sub.2+ product. The separate catalysts can be loaded into the reactor in distinct layers that are separated by spacer layers. The spacer layers can correspond to relatively inert particles, such as silica particles. Optionally, the spacer layer can include an adsorbent, such as boron supported on alumina or boron carbide particles. The adsorbent can be suitable for selective adsorption of the one or more reaction products (such as one or more reaction by-products), to allow for further reduction or minimization of the deactivation of the conversion catalysts.

Processes for producing ethylene carbonate and/or ethylene glycol, and associated reaction systems are similarly provided. Specifically, a process is provided that comprises supplying an overhead absorber stream withdrawn from an absorber to a vapor-liquid separator to yield an aqueous bottoms stream and a recycle gas stream; supplying an aqueous process stream comprising one or more impurities to a distillation apparatus to yield an overhead impurities stream and a purified aqueous process stream; supplying at least a portion of the purified aqueous process stream and an ethylene oxide product stream to the absorber; and contacting the ethylene oxide product stream with the purified aqueous process stream in the absorber in the presence of one or more carboxylation and hydrolysis catalysts to yield a fat absorbent stream comprising ethylene carbonate and/or ethylene glycol.