Magnetically stabilized bed reactors

The first commercial application of the magnetically stabilized bed (MSB) reactor is discussed. The MSB reactor uses a magnetic catalyst in a uniform magnetic field to combine the many advantages of the fixed bed, slurry bed, moving bed, and fluidized bed reactors. An industrial MSB reactor requires a large and uniform magnetic field, which was obtained by optimizing the coil installation spacing and inserting magnetic grids in the reactor. It was used for the intensification of the hydrogenation processes by operating in the chain mode. By utilizing the excellent hydrogenation activity and magnetism of an amorphous Ni catalyst, a MSB reactor was developed for the hydrorefining of caprolactam. Five industrial units of 200-400 kt/a production capacity have been built since 2003. The use of the appropriate magnetic catalyst in the MSB reactor also enhanced activities in CO methanation, selective acetylene hydrogenation and olefin oligomerization. This technology gives new opportunities for process intensification. (C) 2013, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.