Patent ID: 7439274

Claim:
A process for producing liquid and, optionally, gaseous products from gaseous reactants, which process includes feeding at a low level gaseous reactants and, optionally, a portion of a recycle gas stream into a vertically extending slurry bed of solid particles suspended in a suspension liquid inside a vessel; feeding, as an additional gas feed, at least a portion of the recycle gas stream into the slurry bed above the level at which the gaseous reactants are fed into the slurry bed and above the lower 20% of the vertical height of the slurry bed; allowing the gaseous reactants and recycled gas to react as they pass upwardly through the slurry bed, thereby to form liquid and, optionally, gaseous products, and with the liquid product forming together with the suspension liquid, a liquid phase of the slurry bed; allowing any gaseous product and unreacted gaseous reactants and unreacted recycled gas to disengage from the slurry bed into a head space above the slurry bed; withdrawing any gaseous product and unreacted gaseous reactants and unreacted recycled gas from the head space; withdrawing liquid phase from the slurry bed, to maintain the slurry bed at a desired level; and recycling at least some of the gaseous components from the head space to provide the recycle gas stream.