Verfahrenstechnik der Kohlehydrierung in Sumpfphasen‐Reaktoren

Chemical engineering of coal hydrogenation in sump phase reactors. The science of chemical engineering was still in its infancy when the hydrogenation of coal was developed from 1924 onwards at Ludwigshafen, Rhineland. The term backmixing, for example, was unknown. Nevertheless, the scale‐up from a pilot to a production reactor was performed correctly at that time. Even with today's knowledge, the IG Farben sump phase reactors could not have been better designed. Almost four decades have meanwhile elapsed since the cessation of coal hydrogenation in Germany (1945). Nowadays high pressure reactors having more than 50 times the volume of the IG reactors can be produced. Considerable advances have also been made in measurement and control engineering. Hence new chemical engineering questions and solutions arise. If coal hydrogenation is to be performed on a significant industrial scale in 10 to 20 years, this will be economically feasible only by exploiting the possibilities of large reactors having a throughput of 1 to 3 million tons of coal per annum.