US Patent 9958211 Nested-flow heat exchangers and chemical reactors

Disclosed is a technology based upon the nesting of tubes to provide chemical reactors or chemical reactors with built in heat exchanger. As a chemical reactor, the technology provides the ability to manage the temperature within a process flow for improved performance, control the location of reactions for corrosion control, or implement multiple process steps within the same piece of equipment. As a chemical reactor with built in heat exchanger, the technology can provide large surface areas per unit volume and large heat transfer coefficients. The technology can recover the thermal energy from the product flow to heat the reactant flow to the reactant temperature, significantly reducing the energy needs for accomplishment of a process.