The Linde isothermal reactor is a fixed bed reactor suitable for endothermic and exothermic catalytic reactions with indirect heat exchange.
Gas/gas, gas/liquid and liquid/liquid reactions can be carried out. For cooling resp. heating, the reactor use can be made of sensible heat of gases and liquids as well as of latent heat of vaporization. The development of the Linde reactor was especially aimed at exothermic reactions and at steam production.
The reactor is advantageously applicable e.g. for the following processes in the chemical industry:
Methanol synthesis
Shift conversion
Hydrogenation
Methanation
CLINSULF® sulfur recovery
Fischer Tropsch synthesis
Ethylene oxide synthesis
Higher alcohols synthesis
The temperature control is easily carried out by adjusting the steam pressure. The very high heat transfer figures on the catalyst side obtained by cross current flow reduces significantly the cooling area required.
With regard to the flexible arrangement of the tubes in the bundle, large local and temporal temperature gradients can be tolerated, thus permitting fast start-up and shut-down procedures. The cooling area density in the same reactor bundle can be adjusted according to the heat release profile by varying the axial spacing of the tubes.
The Linde isothermal reactor shows the largest catalyst volume per reactor volume for an isothermal reactor. During catalyst loading the tube bundle limits the free fall of the catalyst particles. Therefore their physical damage is minimized. Capacity: With regard to methanol synthesis and depending on process conditions a capacity of up to 4,000 MTPD is feasible.
