Patent ID: 7232532

Claim:
A process for the catalytic partial oxidation of a hydrocarbonaceous feedstock, wherein a feed mixture comprising the hydrocarbonaceous feedstock and a molecular-oxygen containing gas in such amounts as to give an oxygen-to-carbon ratio in the range of from 0.3 to 0.8 is contacted with a catalyst system having an upstream part and a downstream part, the downstream part being in the form of a porous catalyst bed, wherein the catalyst system is retained in a reactor, the reactor comprising an upstream part that contains the upstream part of the catalyst system and a downstream part that contains the downstream part of the catalyst system, wherein the upstream part of the catalyst system only partly fills the cross-sectional area of the fluid flow path of the upstream part of the reactor and the downstream part of the catalyst system completely fills the cross-sectional area of the fluid flow path of the downstream part of the reactor.