Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide by the andrussow process, equipment comprising said reactor and process using such an equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016152484-A1
Application number	US-201414905462-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 18, 2014
Priority date	Jul 19, 2013
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention relates to a reactor ( 201 ) for preparing hydrogen cyanide by the Andrussow process, to an equipment ( 200 ) comprising said reactor and to a process for preparing hydrogen cyanide by the Andrussow process. The reactor ( 201 ) comprising at least one gas inlet (I) for reactant gases mixture, a catalyst ( 203 ), a porous support for the catalyst ( 204 ), a porous sub support ( 205, 206 ) and at least one outlet (P 8 ) for the reaction products. According to the invention, said reactor has a cone frustum shaped metallic casing ( 210 ) and comprises inside the metallic casing, a gas distributor ( 202 ) located between the gas inlet and the catalyst, said distributor comprising at least one cone frustum element (D 1 , . . . Dn) having an upper base directed towards the gas inlet (I).

First claim

1 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide by the Andrussow process, with at least one gas inlet for reactant gases mixture, a catalyst, at least one support for the catalyst and at least one outlet for the reaction products, wherein said reactor ( 201 ) comprises a cone frustum shaped casing ( 210 ) and comprises inside said casing, a gas distributor ( 202 ) located between a gas inlet (I) and a catalyst ( 203 ), said distributor comprising at least onecone frustum element (Dn) having an upper base directed towards the gas inlet.

2 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide by the Andrussow process according to claim 1 , wherein said reactor ( 201 ) is a cone frustum shaped with cylindrical bases.

3 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide, according to claim 1 , wherein the gas distributor comprises a plurality of coaxial cone frustum elements (D 1 , . . . Dn) being arranged around each other with a central cone frustum element having a height h 1 , an outer cone frustum element having an height hn, and intermediate elements having respectively height h 2 , . . . , h(n−1), where h 1 is smaller than h 2 , and respectively h(n−1) is smaller than hn.

4 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide, according to claim 1 , wherein said reactor comprises a safety device ( 215 , P 0 ) to avoid internal overpressure.

5 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide, according to claim 4 , wherein safety device comprises a rupture disk ( 215 ) and an outer pipe (P 0 ), the rupture disk being located at the end of the outer pipe (P 0 ), said outer pipe being connected above the gas input of the reactor, said rupture disk being set for a maximum pressure of 0.5 to 3 bar above operating pressure of the reactor.

6 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 , wherein said reactor further comprises a cooling water jacket ( 209 ) around the casing of the reactor to protect casing of the reactor from catalyst radiance.

7 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 , wherein the reactor comprises, a porous support ( 204 ) for the catalyst ( 203 ) and a porous sub support ( 205 , 206 ) upon which are placed the porous support ( 204 ) and the catalyst ( 203 ), a refractory ring ( 216 ) which is elevating on the border forming the bottom of the reactor and a refractory support ( 207 ) upon which is placed the porous sub-support.

8 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 , wherein the refractory support ( 207 ) is a cone shaped refractory support ( 207 ) comprising a plurality of flow channels ( 208 ) for the reaction products, the base of said cone shaped support being placed under the first porous support of catalyst.

9 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 wherein, the catalyst comprises catalyst gauzes based on platinum/rhodium gauzes.

10 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 , wherein the porous support ( 204 ) for the catalyst is preferably a foam ceramic produced from Al 2 O 3 with more than 99.6% by weight of alumina; or from mullite (Al 2 O 3 +SiO 2 ) with preferably a ratio of 60% to 75% mass of Al 2 O 3 /(Al 2 O 3 +SiO 2 ) and with a high purity of mullite with more than 99.6% mass of mullite.

11 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 10 , wherein the porous sub support comprises a first porous sub support and second porous sub support, said first and second sub supports being a ceramic produced from Al 2 O 3 with more than 99.6% by weight of alumina; or from mullite (Al 2 O 3 +SiO 2 ) with a ratio of 60% to 75% mass of Al 2 O 3 /(Al 2 O 3 + SiO 2 ) and a high purity of mullite with more than 99.6% mass of mullite.

12 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 7 wherein the porous sub support ( 205 - 206 ) comprises a bed of slotted bricks of Al 2 O 3 .

13 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 8 , wherein said refractory cone shaped support ( 207 ) is made of refractory concrete.

14 . Reactor for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 1 , wherein said reactor comprises a peripheral seal ( 220 ) above the catalyst.

15 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide, wherein said equipment comprises a reactor according to claim 1 .

16 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide, according to claim 15 , wherein said equipment it further comprises a static mixer ( 230 ) designed to homogenize the composition of the react ant gases mixture before its introduction into the reactor ( 201 ).

17 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide, according to claim 15 , wherein said equipment further comprises one filtration device ( 231 ) placed on the inlet of the reactor ( 201 ).

18 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 15 , wherein said equipment comprises a heat exchanger ( 211 ) placed under the reactor and comprising tubes bundles ( 212 ) forming the outlet for the reaction products.

19 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 18 , wherein flow channels ( 208 ) of the refractory support ( 207 ) and tubes ( 212 ) of the heat exchanger are coaxial.

20 . Equipment for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 15 , wherein said equipment comprises a cooling device ( 214 ) comprising a boiler drum ( 218 ) providing boiler water under pressure as coolant, an inlet (A) for the boiling water located at the bottom of the heat exchanger and an outlet (B) of hotter water located at the top of the heat exchanger and a circulation loop ( 219 ) between the outlet and the boiler drum.

21 . Process for preparing hydrogen cyanide by a Andrussow process using a reactor according to claim 1 .

22 . Process for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 21 , wherein flow rate of the reactant gases mixture at the inlet of the reactor is higher than a predetermined threshold value, which depends on a flame velocity.

23 . Process for preparing hydrogen cyanide according to claim 21 , wherein the reactant gases mixture at the inlet of the reactor have a temperature comprised between 95° C. and. 115° C.

Assignees

• Arkema France

Inventors

• Bernardin Yves
• Marcarian Xavier
• Billon Romain

Classifications

• B01J2208/00539

  Pressure · CPC title

• B01J2219/00033

  Continuous processes · CPC title

• B01J2219/00094

  Jackets · CPC title

• B01J2219/0286

  Steel · CPC title

• B01J2219/1946

  conical · CPC title