Axial reactor for exothermic or endothermic chemical reactions, comprising at least a first catalytic bed and a second catalytic bed operating in series and at least one heat exchanger between the two catalytic beds, wherein the first catalytic bed has a collector bottom having a box-like structure with flat and parallel walls, which are gas-permeable, and a plurality of parallel channels defined between the walls, wherein a first series of said channels collects the gaseous flow exiting the catalytic bed and passing through the first wall, said gaseous flow is directed towards the heat exchanger, and the flow exiting the exchanger is directed towards the second catalytic bed via a second series of said channels of the collector bottom.

Processes and multiple-stage catalyst systems are disclosed for producing propylene from butene by at least partially metathesizing butene in a metathesizing reaction zone having a metathesis catalyst to form a metathesis reaction product and at least partially cracking the metathesis reaction product in a cracking reaction zone having a cracking catalyst to form a cracking reaction product that includes propylene. The metathesis catalyst may be a mesoporous silica-alumina catalyst support impregnated with metal oxide having a mesoporous silica-alumina catalyst support comprising from 5 weight percent to 50 weight percent alumina. The cracking catalyst may be a MFI structured silica-containing catalyst. The cracking reaction zone may be downstream of the metathesis reaction zone.

Processes and multiple-stage catalyst systems are disclosed for producing propene by at least partially isomerizing butene in an isomerization reaction zone having an isomerization catalyst to form an isomerization reaction product, at least partially metathesizing the isomerization reaction product in a metathesis reaction zone having a metathesis catalyst to form a metathesis reaction product, and at least partially cracking the metathesis reaction product in a cracking reaction zone having a cracking catalyst. The isomerization catalyst may be MgO, and the metathesis catalyst may be a mesoporous silica catalyst support impregnated with a metal oxide. The metathesis reaction zone may be downstream of the isomerization reaction zone, and the cracking reaction zone may be downstream of the metathesis reaction zone.

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 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.

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 reforming reactor and process of using same in which a flow distributor distributes the process gas circumferentially to the reactive zone. Feed is injected into the reactor into a non-reactive zone. The non-reactive zone has two portions, a first portion receiving the feed, and a second portion receiving a purge gas. The purge gas will flow from the second portion to the first portion to prevent flow of the feed from the first portion to the second portion. The combined gas may be passed to a reaction zone for catalytic reforming. The first portion and the second portion may be separated by a flow distributor having two horizontal portions connected to opposite ends of a vertical portion.

A reforming reactor and process of using same in which a flow distributor distributes the process gas circumferentially to the reactive zone. Feed is injected into the reactor into a non-reactive zone. The non-reactive zone has two portions, a first portion receiving the feed, and a second portion receiving a purge gas. The purge gas will flow from the second portion to the first portion to prevent flow of the feed from the first portion to the second portion. The combined gas may be passed to a reaction zone for catalytic reforming. The first portion and the second portion may be separated by a flow distributor having two horizontal portions connected to opposite ends of a vertical portion.

Producing C5 olefins from steam cracker C5 feeds may include reacting a mixed hydrocarbon stream comprising cyclopentadiene, C5 olefins, and C6+ hydrocarbons in a dimerization reactor where cyclopentadiene is dimerized to dicyclopentadiene. The dimerization reactor effluent may be separated into a fraction comprising the C6+ hydrocarbons and dicyclopentadiene and a second fraction comprising C5 olefins and C5 dienes. The second fraction, a saturated hydrocarbon diluent stream, and hydrogen may be fed to a catalytic distillation reactor system for concurrently separating linear C5 olefins from saturated hydrocarbon diluent, cyclic C5 olefins, and C5 dienes contained in the second fraction and selectively hydrogenating C5 dienes. An overhead distillate including the linear C5 olefins and a bottoms product including cyclic C5 olefins are recovered from the catalytic distillation reactor system. Other aspects of the C5 olefin systems and processes, including catalyst configurations and control schemes, are also described.

A reactor for conducting exothermic equilibrium reactions, especially for the performance of methanol synthesis by heterogeneously catalysed conversion of synthesis gas, is proposed, which enables readjustment and hence optimization of the reaction conditions along the longitudinal coordinate of the reactor. For this purpose, in accordance with the invention, the reactor is divided into a multitude of series-connected reaction cells, each of which comprises a preheating zone, a cooled reaction zone, one or more cooling zones and a deposition zone for condensable reaction products. In this way, the reaction conditions are adjustable to the respective, local composition of the reaction mixture and variable over the reactor length.