Many catalytic processes are carried out in reactors which contain a series of separated catalytic beds. In such processes frequently mixing means, such as quench boxes, are disposed between beds. The purpose of the quench boxes is to provide rapid and efficient mixing of the fluid steams being processed in the reactor with a cooler fluid stream supplied from an external source thereby controlling the temperature of the process stream coming into contact with the catalyst in the next succeeding catalyst bed. As will be readily appreciated, the better the mixing, the better the temperature and reaction control and, hence, the better the overall reactor performance.
Examples of interzone mixing devices can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,143,581, U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,407, U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,445, U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,016, U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,072, U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,961, U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,919, U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,847 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,989. Some of these devices are complicated. Some are prone to plugging. Some really need a relatively large space to provide the desirable degree of mixing.
In copending application Ser. No. 284,050 filed Dec. 14, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,571 there is described a quench assembly that provides a significant improvement over known quench boxes. Notwithstanding, the improvements achieved by that device, in today's competitive processing industry there is a need to constantly seek further improvement. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a device for thoroughly mixing in the space between two reaction zones, a stream of fluid supplied from an external source with the main process stream fluid.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a device for efficiently mixing a relatively minor amount of fluid with a relatively major amount of fluid, especially in an interzone space. These and other objects are achieved by the novel device herein described and claimed.