PROX-SVERS® T-99 High-Purity Alumina Balls

PROX-SVERS T-99 alumina balls are high-purity alumina spheres for catalyst and adsorbent bed support, sintered from alpha alumina at 99%+ alumina with less than 0.35% silica. The balls are essentially inert in most chemical environments, rated to 3272°F (1800°C), and they pass the UOP thermal shock and pressure shock tests, so they hold their shape and their chemistry where the bed above them runs hot in a reducing atmosphere and silica leaching from ordinary support media would carry downstream onto the catalyst. T-99 is the high-purity grade of the PROX-SVERS line Interra Global supplies: PROX-SVERS T-46 is the line's standard alumina grade at 92 to 99% alumina, rated to 3200°F (1760°C), and the silica-alumina ceramic grades, PROX-SVERS T-86 and cSPHERE A25, cover the beds that run at or below 325°C (617°F). All four are inert bed support media, graded by size to carry a bed and keep it in place.

Typical Chemical Composition

• Alumina (Al₂O₃): more than 99.0%
• Silica (SiO₂): less than 0.35%
• Iron oxide (Fe₂O₃): less than 0.15%
• Soda (Na₂O): less than 0.5%

Typical Applications

PROX-SVERS T-99 is typically used as inert alumina balls under beds that run hot in reducing atmospheres or feed a purity-critical process:

• Steam reformers for synthesis gas and ammonia production, as catalyst support where silica leaching must be held to a minimum
• Adsorbent bed support for reactive monomer purification, under the adsorbents that purify monomers such as ethylene and propylene

Sizes and Packaging

Interra Global carries PROX-SVERS T-99 high alumina bed support balls in four sizes:

• 1/4 inch (6.4 mm)
• 1/2 inch (12.7 mm)
• 3/4 inch (19 mm)
• 1 inch (25.4 mm)

Other sizes on the data sheet, from 1/16 inch (1.0 to 2.0 mm) to 4 inch (100 mm), are quoted on request. Support layers are typically graded from the smallest balls directly under the working bed to the largest at the outlet collector, and the loading drawing sets the sizes and depths. Packaging is 0.5 cubic foot bags at 65 lb (29.5 kg) net, with 20 cubic foot bulk sacks for the 1/2 and 3/4 inch sizes. Pricing, availability, and lead time are quoted by size on request.

Interra Global supplies PROX-SVERS T-99 alumina balls for new loads and change-outs and answers questions on sizes and quantities against a loading drawing. Some specifications call the product alumina spheres or alumina pebbles; the sizes above apply under any of those names.