Abstract:
A flow straightener is disclosed for a hydrogen cyanide reaction process that maintains a substantially uniform velocity profile to provide a plug flow with reduced flow rotation within a mixing vessel. This results in improved performance and production of hydrogen cyanide.
Abstract:
A process for the production of hydrogen cyanide comprises feeding a reaction mixture feed to a plurality of primary reactors each comprising a catalyst bed comprising platinum, wherein the reaction mixture feed comprises gaseous ammonia, methane, and oxygen gas, determining whether a percent yield of hydrogen cyanide in any of the plurality of primary reactors is at or below a threshold, identifying one or more suboptimal reactors amongst the plurality of primary reactors when the percent yield of hydrogen cyanide in any of the plurality of primary reactors is at or below the threshold, and supplementally feeding the reaction mixture feed to one or more supplementary reactors when the one or more suboptimal reactors are identified, wherein each of the one or more supplementary reactors comprises a catalyst bed comprising platinum. The supplemental feeding can be performed in place of the feeding of the reaction mixture feed to the one or more suboptimal reactors or in addition to the feeding of the reaction mixture feed to the one or more suboptimal reactors. The overall process is sufficient to maintain an overall measured hydrogen cyanide production rate amongst the one or more supplementary reactors and the primary reactors that is within a desired overall hydrogen cyanide production rate range.