Patent ID: 7870870

Claim:
An axial multiport rotary valve for effecting the simultaneous interconnection of a plurality of conduits in a previously determined sequential cycle which comprises: (a) a stator element having a hollow interior stator seating surface in the form essentially of the frustum of an inverted cone, comprising two or more stator process-line ports connected to external-stream conduits and a plurality of stator bed-line ports connected to stator bed-line conduits, the stator bed-line ports having a non-circular form with a greater dimension in the vertical plane and being arranged in a circumferential pattern in the stator seating surface; (b) a rotor element positioned substantially inside the hollow interior of the stator element and which rotates with a substantially vertical axis of rotation within the stator element, the rotor element having an exterior rotor seating surface tapered in a form essentially of a frustum of an inverted cone in fluid-tight contact with the stator seating surface and further comprising two or more rotor process-line ports each corresponding with one stator process-line port and connected by an interior channel to a rotor bed-line port, each of the rotor bed-line ports having a non-circular form with a greater dimension in the vertical plane and communicating with one of the stator bed-line ports in accordance with the previously determined cycle; and, (c) communication channels in one or both of the stator element and rotor element to enable continuous communication between each of the stator process-line ports and the corresponding rotor process-line port.