Hydrator reactor

Description The flowsheet shown is only one of several possible schemes. The raw materials to a free-standing glycol plant are refined ethylene oxide and pure water. These are mixed with recycle waters and pumped from a feed tank (1) to the hydration reactor after being preheated with hot recycle water and steam. When the glycol unit is part of a combined oxide/glycol plant, it is economically desirable to feed it bleed streams from the ethylene oxide... 

Figure 1.1-16 The Idemitsu Petrochemical plant for the hydration of supercritical butene to butanol, for eventual conversion to 2-butanone (MEK). Of the three tallest towers, that on the right (with the framework around it) is the hydration reactor, whereas that on the left is the MEK fractionation column (photo courtesy of Idemitsu Petrochemical).

Another promising option is to inject liquid CO2 into a reactor where it can react at a controlled rate with seawater to form hydrates. While it is difficult to achieve 100% reaction efficiency, laboratory and field experiments indicate that negative buoyancy, and hence sinking, can be achieved with as little as about 25% reaction efficiency. The hydrate reactor could be towed from a moving ship to encourage dilution, or attached to a fixed platform, where the large concentration of dense particles, and the increased seawater density caused by hydrate dissolution, would induce a negatively buoyant plume. 

All commercial production of PG is by noncatalytic hydrolysis of PO carried out under high pressure and high temperature. A large excess of water is used in the conversion of PO into a mixture of mono-, di-, and tripropylene glycols. Typical product distribution is 90% PG and 10% coproducts. Hydration reactor conditions are 120-190°C at pressures up to 2170 kPA. After the hydration reaction is completed, excess water is removed in multieffect evaporators and drying towers, and the glycols are purified by high vacuum distillation. 

Ballestra Sulphurex plants normally include an ageing vessel and a hydrator reactor (both of which are agitated and contain cooling water coils see 5.5.10.) as part of the total stirred tank reactor train. Normally a stirred tank reactor for neutralisation is installed as the last stirred tank reactor in the total reactor train. 

Figure 10.3a shows a simplified fiowsheet for the production of isopropyl alcohol by the direct hydration of propylene. Different reactor technologies are available for the process, and separation and recycle systems vary, but Fig. 10.3a is representative. Propylene... 

From Acetylene. Although acetaldehyde has been produced commercially by the hydration of acetylene since 1916, this procedure has been almost completely replaced by the direct oxidation of ethylene. In the hydration process, high purity acetylene under a pressure of 103.4 kPa (15 psi) is passed into a vertical reactor containing a mercury catalyst dissolved in 18—25% sulfuric acid at 70—90°C (see Acetylene-DERIVED chemicals). 

Cyclohexane, produced from the partial hydrogenation of benzene [71-43-2] also can be used as the feedstock for A manufacture. Such a process involves selective hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexene, separation of the cyclohexene from unreacted benzene and cyclohexane (produced from over-hydrogenation of the benzene), and hydration of the cyclohexane to A. Asahi has obtained numerous patents on such a process and is in the process of commercialization (85,86). Indicated reaction conditions for the partial hydrogenation are 100—200°C and 1—10 kPa (0.1—1.5 psi) with a Ru or zinc-promoted Ru catalyst (87—90). The hydration reaction uses zeotites as catalyst in a two-phase system. Cyclohexene diffuses into an aqueous phase containing the zeotites and there is hydrated to A. The A then is extracted back into the organic phase. Reaction temperature is 90—150°C and reactor residence time is 30 min (91—94). 

The reactor effluent, containing 1—2% hydrazine, ammonia, sodium chloride, and water, is preheated and sent to the ammonia recovery system, which consists of two columns. In the first column, ammonia goes overhead under pressure and recycles to the anhydrous ammonia storage tank. In the second column, some water and final traces of ammonia are removed overhead. The bottoms from this column, consisting of water, sodium chloride, and hydrazine, are sent to an evaporating crystallizer where sodium chloride (and the slight excess of sodium hydroxide) is removed from the system as a soHd. Vapors from the crystallizer flow to the hydrate column where water is removed overhead. The bottom stream from this column is close to the hydrazine—water azeotrope composition. Standard materials of constmction may be used for handling chlorine, caustic, and sodium hypochlorite. For all surfaces in contact with hydrazine, however, the preferred material of constmction is 304 L stainless steel. 

Process. A typical indirect hydration process is presented in Eigure 1. In the process, propylene reacts with sulfuric acid (>60 wt%) in agitated reactors or absorbers at moderate (0.7—2.8 MPa (100—400 psig)) pressure. The isopropyl sulfate esters form and are maintained in the Hquid state at 20—80°C. Low propylene concentrations, ie, 50 wt %, can be tolerated, but concentrations of 65 wt % or higher are preferred to achieve high alcohol yields. Because the reaction is exothermic, internal cooling coils or external heat exchangers are used to control the temperature. 

Conversions of ca 75% are obtained for propylene hydration over cation-exchange resins in a trickle-bed reactor (102). Excess Hquid water and gaseous propylene are fed concurrentiy into a downflow, fixed-bed reactor at 400 K and 3.0—10.0 MPa (30—100 atm). Selectivity to isopropanol is ca 92%, and the product alcohol is recovered by azeotropic distillation with benzene. 

The properties of hydrated titanium dioxide as an ion-exchange (qv) medium have been widely studied (51—55). Separations include those of alkaH and alkaline-earth metals, zinc, copper, cobalt, cesium, strontium, and barium. The use of hydrated titanium dioxide to separate uranium from seawater and also for the treatment of radioactive wastes from nuclear-reactor installations has been proposed (56). 

Precipitated Calcium Carbonate. Precipitated calcium carbonate can be produced by several methods but only the carbonation process is commercially used in the United States. Limestone is calcined in a kiln to obtain carbon dioxide and quicklime. The quicklime is mixed with water to produce a milk-of-lime. Dry hydrated lime can also be used as a feedstock. Carbon dioxide gas is bubbled through the milk-of-lime in a reactor known as a carbonator. Gassing continues until the calcium hydroxide has been converted to the carbonate. The end point can be monitored chemically or by pH measurements. Reaction conditions determine the type of crystal, the size of particles, and the size distribution produced. 

Manufacture. Much of the diethyl ether manufactured is obtained as a by-product when ethanol (qv) is produced by the vapor-phase hydration of ethylene (qv) over a supported phosphoric acid catalyst. Such a process has the flexibiHty to adjust to some extent the relative amounts of ethanol and diethyl ether produced in order to meet existing market demands. Diethyl ether can be prepared directly to greater than 95% yield by the vapor-phase dehydration of ethanol in a fixed-bed reactor using an alumina catalyst (21). 

In the feed preparation section, those materials are removed from the reactor feed which would either poison the catalyst or which would give rise to compounds detrimental to product quality. Hydrogen sulfide is removed in the DBA tower, and mercaptans are taken out in the caustic wash. The water wash removes traces of caustic and DBA, both of which are serious catalyst poisons. Also, the water wash is used to control the water content of the reactor feed (which has to be kept at a predetermined level to keep the polymerization catalyst properly hydrated) and remove NH3, which would poison the catalyst. Diolefins and oxygen should also be kept out of poly feed for good operation. 

The hydration reaction is carried out in a reactor at approximately 300°C and 70 atmospheres. The reaction is favored at relatively lower temperatures and higher pressures. Phosphoric acid on diatomaceous earth is the catalyst. To avoid catalyst losses, a water/ethylene mole ratio less than one is used. Conversion of ethylene is limited to 4-5% under these conditions, and unreacted ethylene is recycled. A high selectivity to ethanol is obtained (95-97%). 

Figure 8-4. A flow diagram for the hydration of propylene to isopropanol (1) propylene recovery column, (2) reactor, (3) residual gas separation column, (4) aqueous - isopropanol azeotropic distillation column, (5) drying column, (6) isopropyl ether separator, (7) isopropyl ether extraction.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical reactor with an anodic compartment for the fuel oxidation giving a proton and a cathodic compartment for the reaction of the proton with oxygen. Two scientific problems must be solved finding a low-cost efficient catalyst and finding a membrane for the separation of anodic and cathodic compartments. The membrane is a poly electrolyte allowing the transfer of hydrated proton but being barrier for the gases. 

Equation (1) consists of various resistance terms. l/Kj a is the gas absorption resistance, while 1/ K,a corresponds to the maleic anhydride diffusion resistance and l/i k represents the chemical reaction resistance. The reaction rate data obtained under the reaction conditions of 250°C and 70 atm were plotted according to equation (1). Although catalytic reaction data with respect to time on stream were not shown here, a linear correlation between reaction rate data and catalyst loading was observed as shown in Fig. 2. The gas absorption resistance (1/ a) was -1.26 h, while the combined reaction-diffusion resistance (lJK,a + 1 T]k) was determined to be 5.57 h. The small negative value of gas absorption resistance indicates that the gas-liquid diffusion resistance was very small and had several orders of magnitude less than the chanical reaction resistance, as similarly observed for the isobutene hydration over Amberlyst-15 in a slurry reactor [6]. This indicates that absorption of malei c anhydride in solvent was a rapid process compared to the reaction rate on the catalyst surface. 

The exothermicity and violence of the reaction of hydrazine hydrate with 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrophenol caused destruction of the reactor in which the reaction was carried out. This reaction is of the same kind as the previous one (2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine preparation). 

NONISOTHERMAL HYDRATION OP NITROBENZENE IN A PACKED BED TUBULAR REACTOR... 

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