The CTR is a vertically oriented, two-bed autoclave reactor system with multiple independently heated zones. This reactor was built primarily for processing and upgrading distillate fuels and vegetable oils in green diesel production. It has successfully produced barrel quantities of renewable distillate fuel from crop oils. In general, the CTR is ideally suited to producing or processing liquid products in volumes ranging from a few gallons to a large drum.

Both reactor beds in the CTR can be run at conditions up to 950°F (500°C) and 5000 psig. Heating can be controlled manually or using a programmable series of automatic ramps and holds. Liquid flow rate can vary from less than 0.5 lb/hr up to tens of pounds per hour. Gas flow rate can be metered by a mass flow controller up to 100 scfh (47 slpm). When larger gas flow rates are desired, such as when products must be rapidly purged, bypass valves allow unmetered flow of gas from bottom to top or top to bottom of either reactor bed.

Each reactor bed in the CTR is 1.5 in. i.d. and 5 ft long, with independently controlled heating zones and multiple thermocouples along its length. The beds are plumbed in series to allow two-step reactions to be performed in a single test. Liquid is fed from a 7-gallon feed pot on a load cell that is separated from the CTR by a blast wall. The liquid feed pump is a Haskel pneumatically driven piston pump with an adjustable pulse interval and supply pressure.

A water-cooled stirring motor located at the bottom of the first reactor bed provides mixing and turbulence at the reactor inlet. While the first reactor is plumbed for bottom-up feeding of liquids and gases, the second reactor bed is plumbed to allow either bottom-up or top-down feed. The second bed can also be bypassed when only the first reactor bed is needed.
After reaction, products pass rapidly into a water-cooled condenser and then into a temperature-controlled glycol-cooled condenser. Condensed products flow into a continuous letdown collection system. Under normal configuration, a level indicator on the collection pot provides continuous liquid product letdown and removal. The liquid can also be collected into a dual-pot system with independent fill, vent, and drain lines. In either configuration, the noncondensable gases are depressurized and then burned in a thermal oxidizer located behind a series of explosion-rated blast walls from the CTR. A slipstream of gas can also be passed to an online analyzer to determine concentrations of H₂, N₂, CH₄, C_XH_Y, CO, CO₂, H₂O, and H₂S.