Patent ID: 7101474

Claim:
A method of mixing fluidizable particles with a fluid feed stream comprising hydrocarbons, said method comprising: a) combining fluidized particles and a fluidizing medium in an upstream section of a contacting conduit to produce a dense bed of fluidized particles; b) passing said dense bed of particles downstream in said contacting conduit through an injector zone defined by a circumferential band of the conduit that diverges the diameter of the conduit relative to the adjacent upstream portion of the conduit and that positions a plurality of discrete feed injection outlets at the wall with at least a portion of a nozzle to provide the outlet protruding from the wall of the conduit to inject feed at an angle relative to the conduit axis into a downstream section of the conduit wherein the protrusion of the nozzle from the wall of the conduit does not extend past an axial projection of the inner conduit wall from a point just upstream of the diverging conduit diameter; c) passing the dense bed of particles downstream from the injector zone to a downstream section of the conduit that provides a less divergent conduit diameter interior immediately downstream of the injector zone and contacting the feed and particles downstream of the feed injection outlets to produce a mixture of contacted feed and particles; and d) passing said feed and particles to a separation zone for the separation of contacted feed from particles.