1. A system for performing experiments, in particular for high throughput experimentation, said system comprising:
a flow through reaction vessel having an inlet, an outlet and a reaction zone intermediate said inlet and outlet,
reagent feed means for introducing one or more reagents into said vessel, said one or more reagents forming one or more reaction products in said reaction zone,
said reagent feed means at least including a liquid feed means for introducing a liquid into said inlet of said vessel,
said vessel further having a liquid evaporation zone intermediate said inlet and said reaction zone,
characterised in that said liquid evaporation zone comprises an evaporation structure contacting said liquid and providing a liquid residence time in said liquid evaporation zone improving evaporation of said liquid.
2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said vessel is a tubular vessel having an inlet and outlet at opposite ends thereof.
3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said vessel is arranged such that said inlet is arranged above said evaporation zone and said evaporation zone is located above said reaction zone.
4. A system according to claim 3, wherein said evaporation structure provides a capillary force counteracting at least partly gravity, thereby increasing the liquid residence time of unevaporated liquid in said evaporation zone.
5. A system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said evaporation structure is porous structure.
6. A system according to claim 5, wherein said porous evaporation structure comprises a bed of particles of a non-porous material.
7. A system according to claim 5, wherein said porous evaporation structure comprises a bed of particles of a porous material.
8. A system according to any of claims 5-7, wherein said porous evaporation structure has a heterogeneous pore distribution.
9. A system according to claim 5, wherein said porous evaporation structure comprises a fibrous material.
10. A system according to claim 5, wherein said porous evaporation structure comprises a woven or braided fibrous material.
11. A system according to claim 5, wherein said porous evaporation structure comprises a foam body, preferably a metallic foam.
12. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the reagent feed means further comprise a gas feed means for introducing a gas into said vessel, and wherein the evaporation structure allows the flow of said gas through said evaporation zone.
13. A system according to claims 5 and 12, wherein said porous evaporation structure extends across the cross-section of the vessel, the porosity of the evaporation structure allowing the passage of gas through said evaporation structure.
14. A system according to claim 12, wherein said evaporation structure has a body having one or more gas passages for allowing the passage of said gas.
15. A system according to claim 14, wherein the evaporation structure has an essentially annular body having a central gas passage.
16. A system according claim 15, wherein said evaporation structure comprises a helical formation on an inner wall of said vessel, e.g. a screwthreaded part of said inner wall or a coil mounted in said vessel and contacting the inner wall of said vessel.
17. A system according to claim 16, wherein said coil is made from a porous material.
18. A system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said evaporation structure has a contacting angle of less than 90 with the liquid.
19. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said evaporation structure is formed as a coating on an inner wall of said vessel, preferably a porous coating.
20. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the evaporation structure adjoins the reaction zone.
21. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said evaporation structure extends over a segment of the circumference of the inner wall of the vessel.
22. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the system comprises a liquid feed conduit having a mouth closely adjacent the evaporation structure, preferably within 5 millimetres, more preferably within 1 millimetre, most preferably within 0.5 millimetre.
23. A system according to one or more of the claims 1-21, wherein the system comprises a liquid feed conduit having a mouth contacting said evaporation structure andor lying within said evaporation structure.
24. A system according to claim 22 or 23, wherein said liquid feed conduit is a capillary.
25. A system according to any of claims 22-24, wherein the evaporating structure extends over the entire distance between the mouth of the liquid feed conduit and the reaction zone.
26. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the evaporation structure is removably mounted in the vessel.
27. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the reaction zone comprises catalyst, e.g. a heterogeneous catalyst.
28. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said vessel has a vessel wall made of a heat conducting material, preferably a metal.
29. A system according to claim 28, wherein heat is transferred from said reaction zone to said evaporation zone assisting the evaporation of said liquid.
30. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said system further comprises a controllable heat exchange means for controlling the temperature of said evaporation zone, in particular said evaporation structure.
31. A system according to claim 30, wherein said heat exchange means comprise a heating means, preferably adapted to provide a temperature gradient over said evaporation zone having an increasing temperature in the direction to the reaction zone.
32. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said system further comprises a housing having at least vessel receiving bore for removably housing the vessel.
33. A system according to claim 32, wherein said housing comprises multiple vessel receiving bores, each receiving a vessel.
34. A system according to claim 32 or 33, wherein said vessel receiving bore is arranged vertically in said housing.
35. A system according to claim 34, wherein said vessel receiving bore has an opening for insertion and removal of the vessel at the top.
36. A system according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said system has a liquid feed channel in communication with said inlet of said vessel for feeding a liquid reagent into said vessel, a gaseous reagent feed channel in communication with said inlet of said vessel for feeding a gaseous reagent into said vessel, and an outlet channel in communication with said outlet of said vessel for removal of said reaction product(s), said system further including a transfer fluid feed channel in communication with said outlet channel for feeding a transfer fluid into said outlet channel, said transfer fluid facilitating the transfer of said reaction product(s).
37. A system according to claim 36, wherein said reaction product is a gaseous reaction product and wherein said transfer fluid is a transfer gas, preferably an inert gas, adapted to prevent condensation of said gaseous reaction product.
38. A system according claim 37, wherein said system comprises heating means for heating said transfer gas andor said mixture of transfer gas and gaseous reaction product.
39. A system according to claim 37 or 38, wherein said housing comprises a base and a cover, said vessel receiving bore being formed in said base and having an opening allowing insertion and removal of said vessel at a first face of said base, said cover being removably mountable on said first face to cover said opening of said bore, said liquid and gaseous reagent feed channels being provided in said cover andor said base communicating with said inlet of said vessel, wherein a sealing means is provided between said vessel and said bore preventing the bypassing of reagent between the vessel and the base.
40. A system according to claim 39, wherein an annular gap is present between said vessel and said vessel receiving bore, said sealing means prevent reagent flow along said gap to the outlet of said vessel, and wherein said transfer fluid channel opens into said annular gap between said sealing means and said outlet of said vessel.
41. A system according to claim 40, wherein said reaction zone is located between said sealing means and said outlet of said vessel, and wherein a reaction zone heating means for heating said reaction zone is provided.
42. A system according to claim 41, wherein said reaction zone heating means is arranged in said housing and said transfer fluid flows past said reaction zone heating means.
43. A system according to any of claims 36-42, wherein said outlet channel extends between the end of said vessel receiving bore remote from the first face and a second face opposite from said first face.
44. A system according to claim 43, wherein said outlet channel extends coaxial in line with said vessel receiving bore, and has a diameter smaller than said vessel receiving bore, a support shoulder being present between said vessel receiving bore and said outlet channel supporting said vessel.
45. A system according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the luid reagent feed means are adapted for feeding multiple liquid reagents into the vessel, and wherein multiple evaporation structures are provided in the vessel, each liquid being fed to a corresponding evaporation structure.
46. A vessel according to one or more of the preceding claims.
47. A method for performing experiments, wherein use is made of a system according to one or more of the preceding claims.
48. A method according to claim 47, wherein multiple liquid reagents are fed into the vessel and the vessel has an evaporation structure for each liquid.
49. A method according to claim 47 or 48, wherein the experiments are trickle flow experiments.
50. Use of a vessel or system according to one or more of the preceding claims in high throughput experimentation.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
an image forming member for forming an image on the recording sheet;
a sheet feeder to feed the recording sheet to the image forming member;
a controller to control the image forming member so as to form an image on the recording sheet such that a first central point of the recording sheet defined in terms of a main scanning direction perpendicular to a feeding direction of the recording sheet by the sheet feeder is placed on a first center line of the image, wherein the first center line is perpendicular to the main scanning direction, and one side of the image is parallel to one side of the recording sheet.
2. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that the other side of the image coincides with the other side of the recording sheet.
3. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that a second central point of the recording sheet defined in terms of the feeding direction of the recording sheet is placed on a second center line of the image perpendicular to the first center line.
4. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that two page images are formed as one page image.
5. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that a position of a page image to be formed on an obverse side of the recording sheet coincides with that of another page image to be formed on a reverse side of the recording sheet.
6. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
an image forming member for forming an image on the recording sheet;
a sheet feeder to feed the recording sheet onto the image forming member;
a controller to control the image forming member so as to form an image on the recording sheet such that a central point of the recording sheet coincides with a central point of the image.
7. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
an image forming member for forming an image on the recording sheet;
a sheet feeder to feed the recording sheet onto the image forming member;
a controller to control the image forming member with a firs adjustment so as to form an image on the recording sheet such that a central point of the recording sheet coincides with a central point of the image and with a second adjustment so as to set a reference line along a feeding direction of the recording sheet by the sheet feeder or a main scanning direction perpendicular to the feeding direction and to space the image from the reference line.
8. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
an image forming member for forming an image on the recording sheet;
a sheet feeder to feed the recording sheet onto the image forming member;
a controller to control the image forming member with a firs adjustment so as to form an image on the recording sheet such that a central point of the recording sheet coincides with a central point of the image, with a second adjustment so as to set a reference line along a feeding direction of the recording sheet by the sheet feeder or a main scanning direction perpendicular to the feeding direction and to space the image from the reference line and with a third adjustment to shift the image on the recording sheet.
9. The image forming apparatus of claim 8, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that two page images are formed as one page image.
10. An image forming method of forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
forming an image on the recording sheet such that a first central point of the recording sheet defined in terms of a main scanning direction is placed on a first central point line of the image, wherein the first center line is perpendicular to the main scanning direction, and one side of the image is parallel to one side of the recording sheet.
11. The image forming method of claim 10, wherein the image is formed on the recording sheet such that the other side of the image coincides with the other side of the recording sheet.
12. An image forming method of forming an image on a recording sheet whose area is larger than that of a predetermined size-fixed recording sheet, comprising:
forming a two page image on a recording sheet sequentially by first, second and third processes, wherein a central point the recording sheet coincides with a central point of the two page image in the first process, the two page image is separated into two separated page images based on a reference line defined along a main scanning direction or a sub-scanning direction in the second process and the two separated page images are shifted on the recording sheet in the third process.
13. The image forming apparatus of claim 6, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that two page images are formed as one page image.
14. The image forming apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller controls the image forming member such that two page images are formed as one page image.