PACKING MEMBER

Abstract

A packing member for use in a packed bed. The packing member includes ceramic material and surface structures on the outer surface of the packing member. The packing member does not include a fluid communication intra-particle channel extending through the packing member from a first aperture on a first side of the packing member to a second aperture on a substantially opposing second side of the packing member. Also described is a supported catalyst, apparatus and a method of production.

Claims

1. A packing member for use in a packed bed, wherein the packing member comprises ceramic material and further comprises surface structures on the outer surface of the packing member, and wherein the packing member does not comprise a fluid communication intra-particle channel extending through the packing member from a first aperture on a first side of the packing member to a second aperture on a substantially opposing second side of the packing member.

2. A packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a macrostructure that is substantially in the form of a multi-lobe, for example a trilobe, quadralobe or pentalobe; a sphere; an ellipsoid, a cube; a cuboid; a cylinder, or a cog.

3. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

5. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member comprises a plurality of repeating surface structures having substantially the same appearance, and/or wherein the packing member comprises surface structures extending over 20% of the outer surface of the packing member.

6. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member comprises surface structures extending over 60% of the outer surfacer.

7. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

9. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a geometric surface area per volume (GSA) of 0.7 cm.sup.2/cm.sup.3.

10. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a side crush strength of 250 kgf.

11. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a GSA of 1.7 cm.sup.2/cm.sup.3.

12. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a side crush strength of 70 kgf.

13. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a GSA of 3.3 cm.sup.2/cm.sup.3.

14. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a side crush strength of 70 kgf.

15. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a porosity of 0.06 cm.sup.3/g.

16. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member has a porosity of <0.5 cm.sup.3/g.

17. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. The packing member according to claim 1, wherein the packing member is a cast packing member and/or wherein the packing member is obtainable by gel casting a composition comprising a ceramic material, an organic binder component and optionally a pore forming component.

20. (canceled)

21. The packing member according to claim 19, wherein the organic binder component is formed from 40 to 95 wt % of polymerisable monomer and from 60 to 5 wt % of crosslinking member; and/or wherein the ceramic material comprises aluminium oxide, aluminium silicate, magnesium aluminate, calcium aluminate, zirconia, silica, titanate, carbon and/or magnesium oxide, or precursors thereof; and/or wherein the composition or packing member comprises a promoter; and/or wherein the composition comprises from 0.1 to 10% of polymerisable monomer by dry weight of the composition; and/or wherein the composition comprises from 50 to 95% of ceramic material by dry weight of the composition.

22. A supported catalyst comprising a packing member according to claim 1 and further comprising catalytic material.

23. (canceled)

24. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. A method for producing a packing member/supported catalyst according to claim 1, comprising the steps of: a. contacting a composition for producing a packing member with an initiator and optionally a polymerisation accelerator; b. arranging the resulting composition of step (a) in a mould; c. demoulding the composition to produce a green body, d. optionally, drying the green body at room temperature or baking the green body at elevated temperature; e. calcining the green body; f. optionally, contacting the packing member with a catalytic material.

27. A reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1.

28. A reaction medium comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1.

29. (canceled)

30. A method of treating a mixture to selectively remove a target component of the mixture, comprising: a. contacting said fluid with a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 to transfer at least a portion of the target component to the packing member/supported catalyst.

31. A method for i. the production of a synthesis gas, comprising the use of a reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 to produce the synthesis gas; ii. the production of direct reduced iron comprising the use of a reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 to produce the direct reduced iron; iii. endothermic gas generation comprising the use of a reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 for the endothermic gas generation, iv. catalytic partial oxidation comprising the use of a reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 for the catalytic partial oxidation; or v. autothermal reforming comprising the use of a reactor comprising a catalyst bed wherein the catalyst bed comprises a packing member and/or supported catalyst according to claim 1 for the autothermal reforming.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0123] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a first comparative packing member.

[0124] FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a second comparative packing member.

[0125] FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a packing member according to the present invention.

[0126] FIG. 4 shows a cross-section from the side of the column of the flow results for the first comparative packing member.

[0127] FIG. 5 shows a cross-section from the side of the column of the flow results for the second comparative packing member.

[0128] FIG. 6 shows a cross-section from the side of the column of the flow results for the packing member according to the present invention.

[0129] FIG. 7 shows a cross-section from the top of the column of the flow results for the first comparative packing member.

[0130] FIG. 8 shows a cross-section from the top of the column of the flow results for the second comparative packing member.

[0131] FIG. 9 shows a cross-section from the top of the column of the flow results for the packing member according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0132] Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) compared the performance of two comparative packing members to a packing member according to the present invention.

[0133] The first comparative packing member 100, shown in FIG. 1, has a 16 mm diameter grooved spherical macrostructure with four equally spaced parallel fluid communication intra-particle channels in the form of bores 102 extending between apertures on opposite sides of the outer surface of the packing member. The grooves 104 of packing member 100 are in the form of four equally spaced parallel linear grooves with curved lateral cross-sections on the outer surface of the packing member. The outer surface of the packing member 100 has the expected smooth continuous curvature of a spherical macrostructure.

[0134] The second comparative packing member 200, shown in FIG. 2, is the same as the first comparative packing member, with bores 202 and grooves 204, but in addition the outer surface of packing member 200 comprises surface structures in the form of a plurality of interconnected hexagon-shaped annular ridged surface structures 206 extending over substantially the whole of the outer surface apart from the apertures of bores 202 and the surface of grooves 204. The portion of the outer surface that extends between the inner edges of the annular ridges is formed of an open ended inverted hexagonal pyramid.

[0135] The packing member according to the present invention 300, shown in FIG. 3, is the same as the second comparative packing member, with grooves 302 and surface structures 304, except that packing member 300 does not have fluid communication intra-particle channels extending through the body of the packing member.

[0136] CFD was used to test the flow around the above-mentioned packing members.

[0137] The test conditions were as follows: [0138] Large tube diameter selected so as to not interfere with flow around pellet (50 mm ID) [0139] Simulation resolution 0.125 mm per pixel [0140] Flow rate: 0.4 m.sup.3/min [0141] Orientation of the holes/side-channels in the same direction of flow

[0142] The result of the flow tests were:

TABLE-US-00001 Measured stagnant velocity zone below pellet (truncated cone) Comp. Comp. Inv. packing packing packing member 1 member 2 member Height of dead 7.5 mm 7.4 mm 7.25 mm zone below pellet Domain avg 0.05082 0.05088 0.05095 velocity Re 1414.8 1416.5 1330.3

[0143] As shown by the results of the above table and in FIGS. 4 to 9, compared to the first comparative packing member, the packing member according to the invention provides a higher gas velocity in contact with the packing member. In FIGS. 4 to 9, darker areas such as A in FIG. 5 indicate a lower/static gas velocity and lighter areas such as B in FIG. 5 indicate a higher gas velocity. In addition, the packing member according to the invention provides a higher amount of gas turbulence above the packing member, and also provides a smaller velocity static zone below the packing member.

[0144] Compared to the second comparative packing member, the packing member according to the invention surprisingly results in minimal difference in velocity patterns despite the absence of intra-particle flow channels. Advantageously, the packing member according to the invention further surprisingly has a higher velocity with a lower Re number than the second comparative packing member, signifying lower turbulence and improved uniformity of flow.

[0145] Furthermore, the packing member according to the present invention was found to have significantly higher side crush strength than the first or second comparative packing members.

[0146] Attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

[0147] All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

[0148] Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

[0149] The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s). The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.