A micro reaction tool for heterogeneous catalytic gas phase reactions

A modular micro reactor concept based on simple, reusable silicon chips has been shown to offer a cheap and flexible way to test potentials and limitations of micro reactors for the study of high temperature catalytic oxidation reactions. We realized such a silicon based, simple reactor with the design emphasis on easy handling. The reactor set up was tested using the Pt catalyzed H/sub 2/+O/sub 2/ reaction. It was shown that the current design is well suited for the intended task, withstanding very high temperatures without any degradation, and very effectively suppressing homogeneous flames and explosions in this reaction system. Very high flow rates in excess of 1 slpm, could be achieved at complete conversion of stoichiometric H/sub 2/ feeds in air. We see a promising potential use of the studied system in the application as a pre-heating system for automotive exhaust catalysts. Due to the effective suppression of flames in micro channels, the strong exothermicity of the H/sub 2/+O/sub 2/ reaction near stoichiometric conditions can be put to use in a micro reactor set up. A further use of the current reactor set up can be seen in the study of the catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons.