A microfabricated suspended-tube chemical reactor for fuel processing

Author

Arana, L.R. ; Schaevitz, S.B. ; Franz, A.J. ; Jensen, K.F. ; Schmidt, M.A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Chem. Eng., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

24-24 Jan. 2002

Firstpage

232

Lastpage

235

Abstract

A microfabricated suspended-tube reactor has been developed and demonstrated to operate at temperatures over 900/spl deg/C for efficient thermal processing of chemical fuels. This reactor uses thin-walled SiN tubes to directly address the most significant problem in small-scale fuel processors: thermal management. It efficiently isolates a high-temperature zone while maintaining a temperature gradient of up to 2000/spl deg/C/mm. This design is ideally suited to serve as a combustor/recuperator for thermoelectric (TE) and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) generators, and as a reformer to produce hydrogen for portable fuel cell systems. Using the integrated heaters, catalytic ammonia cracking has been carried out to produce up to 1.6 W (9 sccm) of hydrogen with 97% fuel utilization.

Keywords

catalysis; chemical energy conversion; fuel; fuel cells; hydrogen economy; micromechanical devices; thermoelectric conversion; thermophotovoltaic cells; 900 C; SiN-Si; catalytic ammonia cracking; chemical fuel thermal processing; combustor/recuperator; high-temperature zone isolation; hydrogen production; microfabricated suspended-tube reactor; portable fuel cell systems; reformer; small-scale fuel processors; temperature gradient; thermal management; thermoelectric generators; thermophotovoltaic generators; thin-walled SiN tubes; Chemical processes; Chemical reactors; Fuels; Hydrogen; Inductors; Silicon compounds; Temperature; Thermal management; Thermoelectricity; Thin wall structures;

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.2002.984245

Filename

984245