A fluid coking unit for converting a heavy oil feed to lower boiling products by thermal has a centrally-apertured annular baffle at the top of the stripping zone below the coking zone to inhibit recirculation of solid particles from the stripping zone to the coking zone. By inhibiting recirculation of the particles from the stripping zone to the coking zone, the temperatures of the two zones are effectively decoupled, enabling the coking zone to be run at a lower temperature than the stripping zone to increase the yield of liquid products.

A system and a method for catalytically cracking hydrocarbons. The system includes a fluidized bed riser reactor, and a separation zone configured to separate the effluent from the riser reactor to produce a product stream and a spent catalyst. A stripping zone is fluidly coupled to the outlet of the separation zone such that the spent catalyst is stripped to remove the hydrocarbons adsorbed thereon. The stripping zone encompasses at least a portion of the riser reactor such that stripping internals in the stripping zone are used to provide reaction heat to the riser reactor.

System and methods for plasma treatment of a fluidized bed of particles are disclosed. The systems include an energy coupling zone configured to generate a plasma from microwave radiation and an interface element configured to propagate the plasma from the energy coupling zone to a reaction zone. The reaction zone is configured to receive the plasma, receive a plurality of reactant particles in a fluidization plane direction from a fluidization assembly positioned below the reaction zone, and form a product in presence of the plasma. The fluidization plane is substantially perpendicular to the propagated plasma.

A reactor system and method for catalytic dehydrogenation of saturated C3-C6 hydrocarbons within a reactor placed within a reactor disengager, where the reactor is open at the bottom thereof and open to the disengager, and the exit riser from the reactor is not hard coupled to at least one downstream cyclone. This configuration permits controlling the amount of catalyst within the reactor by varying the level of catalyst in the reactor disengager outside the reactor and permits controlling total catalyst hold-up and/or weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) independently from catalyst flow from the catalyst regenerator.

A reactor system and method for catalytic dehydrogenation of saturated C3-C6 hydrocarbons within a reactor placed within a reactor disengager, where the reactor is open at the bottom thereof and open to the disengager, and the exit riser from the reactor is not hard coupled to at least one downstream cyclone. This configuration permits controlling the amount of catalyst within the reactor by varying the level of catalyst in the reactor disengager outside the reactor and permits controlling total catalyst hold-up and/or weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) independently from catalyst flow from the catalyst regenerator.

A heat receiver, a reactor, and a heater utilize the heat of concentrated solar light for thermal decomposition and/or chemical reaction of coals, etc. The heat receiver includes: a side portion forming a substantially cylindrical side surface; a substantially circular bottom portion connected to the lower edge of the side portion; and a ceiling connected to the upper edge of the side portion. A substantially circular aperture is formed in the center of the ceiling. The heat receiver has a substantially cylindrical cavity and the opening portion is open. When the cavity has a diameter of D and a length of L, and the aperture has a diameter of d, d=D/2 or less and L=2D or more. Concentrated solar light entering the heat receiver is to be contained in the heat receiver to effectively utilize the solar light.

The present invention is related to a circulating fluidized bed gasification or combustion system (1) using coal or biomass as raw material and comprising a combustion/gasification reactor (2); a cyclone (3) which is in connection with the reactor (2) in order that solid particles are separated from gas flow; a downcomer (4) which is in connection with the reactor (2) and the cyclone (3), extends along the reactor (2), and enables solid particles captured by the cyclone (3) to be sent to the combustion/gasification reactor (2) again; a distributing plate (5) which is in connection with the reactor (2) and performs primary gas supply to the system (1) homogeneously; at least one conduit which is positioned parallel to the downcomer (4); an ejector (7) which is positioned on the downcomer (4) vertically, comprises at least one nozzle (6) spraying pressurized gas towards the reactor (2).

A novel apparatus for an ion exchange system is provided. The apparatus comprises a first column for housing a first fluidized bed through which particles are flowed countercurrently to an ion-containing fluid to yield ion-loaded particles, a second column through which the ion-loaded particles are flowed countercurrently to an eluent fluid to yield regenerated particles, and a transport section which transfers the regenerated particles for re-introduction into the first column to repeat the ion exchange cycle in a continuous manner. A continuous method of ion exchange is also provided.

The invention relates to a device and to an improved method for chemical looping combustion of at least one liquid hydrocarbon feed, comprising: mixing the liquid feed with an atomization gas so as to feed it into a metal oxide particle transport zone (2), upstream from combustion zone (3), through atomization means (6) allowing to form finely dispersed liquid droplets in the atomization gas; vaporization of the liquid feed in form of droplets into contact with at least part of metal oxide particles in transport zone (2), the operating conditions in transport zone (2) being so selected that the superficial gas velocity after vaporization of the liquid feed is higher than the transport velocity of the metal oxide particles; sending all of the effluents from transport zone (2) to a combustion zone (3) allowing reduction of the metal oxide particles, said combustion zone (3) comprising at least one dense-phase fluidized bed. The invention can be advantageously applied to CO.sub.2 capture and energy production.

A catalyst cooler for cooling regenerated catalyst in a regenerator associated with a fluid catalytic cracking unit. The catalyst cooler includes a first passage for transporting hot regenerated catalyst away from the regenerator and a second passage for returning cooled regenerated catalyst to the regenerator. The catalyst cooler also includes at least one heat exchanger. The second passage may be disposed within the first passage, or the first and second passage may each occupy a portion of a horizontal cross section of the catalyst cooler.