Development of a catalytic silicon micro-combustor for hydrocarbon-fueled power MEMS

Author

Spadaccini, C.M. ; Zhang, X. ; Cadou, C.P. ; Miki, N. ; Waitz, I.A.

Author_Institution

Gas Turbine Lab., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

24-24 Jan. 2002

Firstpage

228

Lastpage

231

Abstract

This paper reports the development of a high efficiency, hydrocarbon-fueled micro-combustion system for a microscale gas turbine engine for power generation and micro-propulsion applications. A three-wafer catalytic combustor was fabricated and tested. Efficiencies in excess of 40% were achieved for ethylene-air and propane-air combustion. A fabrication process for a six-wafer catalytic combustor was developed and this device was successfully constructed.

Keywords

aerospace propulsion; catalysis; combustion; gas turbines; heat engines; micromechanical devices; catalytic Si micro-combustor; ethylene-air combustion; fabrication process; hydrocarbon-fueled micro-combustion system; hydrocarbon-fueled power MEMS; micro-propulsion; microscale gas turbine engine; power generation; propane-air combustion; six-wafer catalytic combustor; three-wafer catalytic combustor; Chemicals; Combustion; Engines; Fuels; Hydraulic turbines; Hydrogen; Laboratories; Micromechanical devices; Pulp manufacturing; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2002. The Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7185-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2002.984244

Filename

984244