High Selectivity in a Fuel Reforming Reactor-Network

摘要

It is well known that hydrocarbons have to be reformed before they can be used in PEM-fuel cells. We realised the steam-reformation of methanol (MeOH) in a network of temperature-controlled reactors of a few cubic-millimetres (1). Using such small reaction chambers it is possible to realise high efficiencies known from the micro reaction technology on the one hand and the throughput as needed for many applications on the other hand. Using this unit for steam reforming only, we were able to get a turnover number of 2.69, which we found to be quite high for a technical lab-model compared to the stoichiometric turnover of 3. The same technique of using a cascade of temperature controlled miniature reaction chambers can be applied to several other heterogeneous catalytic reactions (2).