Patent ID: 8821691

Claim:
A reactor vessel comprising: an upper inlet and a bottom discharge; a generally vertically oriented sidewall between the upper inlet and bottom discharge, wherein the sidewall defines a perimeter of an interior flow passage in the vessel; a first pair of support plates arranged on opposite sides of the sidewall, each support plate in the first pair of support plates has a trailing edge parallel to a trailing edge of the other support plate in the first pair, wherein the support plates in the first pair of support plates are opposite to each other in the reactor vessel, wherein the first pair of support plates reduces a cross-sectional flow area of the flow passage in a first single direction of convergence, and a second pair of support plates arranged on opposite sides of the side wall, each support plate in the second pair of support plates has a trailing edge parallel to a trailing edge of the other support plate in the second pair, wherein the support plates in the second pair of support plates are opposite to each other in the reactor vessel, wherein the second pair of support plates reduces a cross-sectional flow area of the flow passage in a second single direction of convergence, wherein the second single direction is angularly offset to the first single direction, and the second pair of support plates is at a different elevation of the vessel than the first pair of support plates.