Patent ID: 7371361

Claim:
A conversion process for ammonia synthesis, comprising: introducing a reactant-rich stream comprising hydrogen and nitrogen at a feed temperature into a shell-side passage of a shell-and-tube heat exchanging reactor to pre-heat the reactant-rich stream to an inlet temperature; introducing the pre-heated reactant-rich stream from the shell-side passage at the inlet temperature into a reaction zone containing a plurality of catalyst-containing tubes to convert the hydrogen and nitrogen to ammonia to form an ammonia-enriched mixture of hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia; indirectly transferring heat from the tubes to the reactant-rich stream at a rate effective to maintain the mixture in the tubes below equilibrium temperature, wherein the heat transfer rate in a decreasing-temperature section of the reaction zone exceeds heat of reaction to lower the temperature of the mixture to a discharge temperature; and recovering an effluent at the discharge temperature from outlet ends of the tubes enriched in ammonia and lean in nitrogen and hydrogen.