Impinging stream loop reactor

Probably inspired by the fact that the Jet Loop Reactor has successfully been applied in industry, Gaddis and Vogelpohl [111] proposed an impinging stream loop reactor, as shown in Fig. 7.4. It seems that their main purpose is to lengthen residence times in the reaction vessel. The principles of the reactor s operation are somewhat similar to those of the Air Left Reactor (ALR). The only difference lies in the fact that... 

Gaddis E S, Vogelpohl A (1992) The Impinging-stream reactor A high performance loop reactor for mass transfer controlled chemical reactions, Chemical Engineering Science 47 2877-2882. 

It was found during studies of ammonia synthesis on iron that the incorporation of a condenser downstream of the sample valve in the external circulation loop of the HPLP apparatus (Fig. 7), enabled the system to be run as a flow rather than a batch reactor. This is true for any reaction system where the reactants are more volatile than the products, since the condenser temperature can be adjusted to trap the products almost exclusively, allowing a nearly pure stream of reactants to impinge on the catalyst. In the case of ammonia synthesis, (where, next to the product, nitrogen at a partial pressure of 5 atm was the most condensable species) a slurry of isopentane (— 159.9 °C) was found to be the ideal condenser medium. During a study of rhenium-catalyzed ammonia synthesis the isopentane condenser was switched in periodically to reduce the ammonia partial pressure to below that at which it appeared to poison the catalyst. In this way, the rhenium was able to produce ammonia in excess of the amount usually leading to poisoning. 

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