Process for catalyst unloading facilitation

摘要

A process for facilitating the unloading of a fixed bed of cobalt/metal oxide catalyst particles from a reactor tube by (i) feeding a gas comprising 10 to 30 (vol/vol) percent of oxygen to the reactor tube with a GHSV for oxygen of 0.5 to 50 Nl/l/hr, and (ii) removing the catalyst particles from the reactor tube. In the fixed bed of catalyst particles to which the oxygen comprising gas is fed in step (i) at most 10 mole % of the element cobalt is present in Co3O4 and/or CoO, calculated on the total amount of moles of cobalt in the catalyst particles.

主权项

1. A process for facilitating the unloading of a fixed bed of catalyst particles from a reactor tube, the catalyst particles comprising:
at least 40 weight % of a metal oxide chosen from the group of titania, silica, alumina, zirconia, ceria, gallia and mixtures thereof, and at least 2 weight % of the element cobalt, calculated on the total weight of the catalyst particles;the process comprising the steps of:
(i) feeding a gas comprising 10 to 30 (vol/vol) percent of oxygen, to the reactor tube with a gas hourly space velocity for oxygen of 0.5 to 50 Nl/l/hr; and (ii) removing the catalyst particles from the reactor tube;wherein in the fixed bed of catalyst particles to which the oxygen comprising gas is fed in step (i) at most 10 mole % of the element cobalt is present in Co3O4 and/or CoO, calculated on the total amount of moles of cobalt in the catalyst particles.