Shell Oil Comapny

Malcolm W McEwan

Marius B Teekens

A fluid inlet device for introducing a mixture of liquid and gas into a column provided with an inlet nozzle and with a horizontal gas/liquid contact tray arranged in the column below the inlet nozzle provided with a number of elongated downcomers between which bubbling areas are located, which inlet device consists of an inlet end that is in fluid communication with the inlet nozzle and a number of vertical vanes placed one behind the other, wherein each vane consists of two interconnected parts, an intercepting part and an outwardly directed deflecting part, wherein the intercepting part extends to the inlet end of the inlet device, and wherein an outlet channel defined by the deflecting parts of two adjacent vanes opens above a bubbling area of the contact tray.

Fluid inlet device

A column for separating a liquid from a gas by means of a horizontal liquid coalescer and a centrifugal liquid separator is improved by positioning the coalescer below the centrifugal separator and extending both these devices over the whole cross section of the column.

Column for removing liquid from a gas

An improved process and apparatus is described for separating a gas from an upwardly flowing gas-liquid mixture at the top of a vertical reactor or tube covered by a separator hood in which the upper or overflow edge of the upflow tube is extended and modified by a series of vertical partitions traversing the space directly above the upflow tube and extending outwardly therefrom to afford a series of adjacent, alternating riser and downcomer compartments, the riser compartments being bottomless in the space directly over the upflow tube and the downcomer compartments being bottomless in the space outside the top of the upflow tube, such that any liquid being separated from the gas-liquid mixture first passes through a riser compartment and over a partition into a downcomer compartment before it is collected for withdrawal. This improved apparatus and process has special application in disengaging gas from a liquid-solid slurry such as is conventionally encountered in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons from gaseous reactant streams.

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The Hague, Netherlands

Malcolm W McEwan