The invention relates to hydrocarbon dehydrocyclization to produce products such as aromatic hydrocarbon, to equipment and materials useful for dehydrocyclization, to processes for carrying out dehydrocyclization, and to the use of dehydrocyclization for, e.g., natural gas upgrading. The dehydrocyclization is carried out in a catalytic reaction zone of a reverse-flow reactor.

A centric spray pipe apparatus is disclosed, The centric spray pipe includes a plurality of nozzles designed to provide full coverage of liquid spray to a vessel.

The present invention is a combustion strategy using a swirl burner tip, which is one of stoichiometric mixture of reactants (2H.sub.2+O.sub.2.fwdarw.2H.sub.2O) with added high quality dry steam (H.sub.2O (g)) as a thermal diluent. The amount of dry steam can be determined by the safety requirements of the reactants and the desired temperature of post-flame gases. It can be appreciated that the design of the swirl burner tip is for safe handling of the reactants, and for rapid and thorough mixing of the reactants so combustion occurs in a nearly premixed configuration exterior of the swirl burner tip. The H.sub.2/O.sub.2 ratio is fixed to consume all H.sub.2 and O.sub.2 (stoichiometric), with dry steam (H.sub.2O (g)) strategically added to the reactants. The burner tip is configured to create counter swirling reactant flows separate from each other.

Suggested is a carbon black composition showing a narrow Aggregate Size Distribution (ASD) characterized by a D.sub.50/D.sub.mode value of about 0.58 to about 0.65 and a Relative Span (D.sub.90-D.sub.10)/D.sub.50 of about 0.5 to about 0.8, which is obtainable by means of a modified furnace reactor. The composition shows superior additive performance and allows producing e.g. bus or truck tires with improved wear resistance and reinforcement.

A method and system for rapidly preparing lithium carbonate or concentrated brine using high-temperature steam. The method comprises the steps of: feeding brine into a reactor, heating the brine with high-temperature steam above 200 C. while simultaneously discharging steam produced in the reactor, cooling and condensing the discharged steam in a condenser and collecting the condensate, and stopping the high-temperature steam after the brine is concentrated to a predetermined concentration or after a sufficient amount of lithium carbonate is collected. The system comprises: a reactor provided with a brine inlet, a steam outlet connected to a condenser, a product outlet, and a plurality of steam pipes. The method concerns the direct heating of brine using high-temperature steam, which is effective and efficient, and also produces fresh water. The heating is uniform and rapid, and does not require jackets, heat exchange tubes, mixers and vacuum pumps, vastly simplifying the system.

Apparatus and methods are provided for converting methane in a feed stream to acetylene. A hydrocarbon stream is introduced into a supersonic reactor and pyrolyzed to convert at least a portion of the methane to acetylene. The reactor effluent stream may be treated to convert acetylene to another hydrocarbon process.

Devices and methods for controlling the properties of chemical species during time-dependent processes. A device includes a reactor for containing one or more chemical species of a time-dependent process, an extraction pump for automatically and continuously extracting an amount of the one or more chemical species from the reactor, one or more detectors for measuring property changes of the one or more extracted chemical species and generating a continuous stream of data related to the one or more property changes to the one or more chemical species during a time interval, and a process controller configured to fit the continuous stream of data to a mathematical function to predict one or more properties of the one or more chemical species at a future time point and make one or more process decisions based on the prediction of one or more properties at the future time point.

Apparatus and methods are provided for converting methane in a feed stream to acetylene. A hydrocarbon stream is introduced into a supersonic reactor and pyrolyzed to convert at least a portion of the methane to acetylene. The reactor effluent stream may be treated to convert acetylene to another hydrocarbon process.

Apparatus and methods are provided for converting methane in a feed stream to acetylene. A hydrocarbon stream is introduced into a supersonic reactor and pyrolyzed to convert at least a portion of the methane to acetylene. The reactor effluent stream may be treated to convert acetylene to another hydrocarbon process.

Disclosed is a reactor for treating, particularly by hydrothermal carbonization, sludge containing organic matter, including, with: a vessel (100) including an inner chamber arranged to receive the sludge and to form a path of travel for the sludge adapted to allow for circulation of the sludge, a sludge inlet (1) arranged to introduce the sludge into a sludge introduction area of the inner chamber, a sludge outlet (11) arranged to discharge at least part of the sludge contained in the inner chamber, and a steam inlet (3) arranged to inject steam in a steam injection zone of the inner chamber along a steam injection direction, the steam injection direction being different from a sludge circulation direction in the steam injection zone along the circulation path, the steam injection zone being separated from the sludge introduction zone.