A reforming reactor and process of using same in which a flow distributor distributes the process gas circumferentially to the reactive zone. Feed is injected into the reactor into a non-reactive zone. The non-reactive zone has two portions, a first portion receiving the feed, and a second portion receiving a purge gas. The purge gas will flow from the second portion to the first portion to prevent flow of the feed from the first portion to the second portion. The combined gas may be passed to a reaction zone for catalytic reforming. The first portion and the second portion may be separated by a flow distributor having two horizontal portions connected to opposite ends of a vertical portion.