A microfabricated suspended-tube chemical reactor for thermally efficient fuel processing

Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems

Volumn 12, Issue 5, 2003, Pages 600-612

  Arana, Leonel R ^a   Schaevitz, Samuel B ^a,b   Franz, Aleksander J ^a,b   Schmidt, Martin A ^a   Jensen, Klavs F ^a  

^a USA   (United States)

^b Lilliputian Systems Inc   (United States)

Author keywords

Chemical reactor; Energy; Fuel processing; Heat exchanger; Hydrogen

Indexed keywords

CHEMICAL REACTORS; HEAT EXCHANGERS; HIGH TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS; HYDROGEN; MICROELECTRONIC PROCESSING; TUBES (COMPONENTS);

FUEL PROCESSING; MICROENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEMS; MICROFABRICATED; SILICON NITRIDE TUBES;

MICROELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICES;

EID: 0242489556     PISSN: 10577157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2003.817897     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. P. B. Koeneman, I. J. Busch-Vishniac, and K. L. Wood, "Feasibility of micro power supplies for MEMS," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 6, pp. 355-362, 1997.
2. J. Han and E. S. Park, "Direct methanol fuel-cell combined with a small back-up battery," J. Power Sources, vol. 112, pp. 477-483, 2002.
3. H. L. Maynard and J. P. Meyers, "Miniature fuel cells for portable power: Design considerations and challenges," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, vol. 20, pp. 1287-1297, 2002.
4. C. Rice, R. I. Ha, R. I. Masel, P. Waszczuk, A. Wieckowski, and T. Barnard, "Direct formic acid fuel cells," J. Power Sources, vol. 111, pp. 83-89, 2002.
5. S. J. Lee, A. Chang-Chien, S. W. Cha, R. O'Hayre, Y. I. Park, Y. Saito, and F. B. Prinz, "Design and fabrication of a micro fuel cell array with "flip- flop" interconnection," J. Power Sources, vol. 112, pp. 410-418, 2002.
6. A. Heinzel, C. Hebling, M. Muller, M. Zedda, and C. Muller, "Fuel cells for low power applications," J. Power Sources, vol. 105, pp. 20-255, 2002.
7. H. Voss and J. Huff, "Portable fuel cell power generator," J. Power Sources, vol. 65, pp. 155-158, 1997.
8. J. S. Wainright, M. H. Litt, Y. Zhang, C. C. Liu, and R. F. Savinell, "Novel polymer electrolytes for microfabricated fuel cells," in Proc.-Electrochem. Soc., vol. 2000-22, 2001, pp. 14-22.
9. A. Mehra, X. Zhang, A. A. Ayon, I. A. Waitz, M. A. Schmidt, and C. M. Spadaccini, "A six-wafer combustion system for a silicon micro gas turbine engine," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 9, pp. 517-527, 2000.
10. S. B. Schaevitz, A. J. Franz, K. F. Jensen, and M. A. Schmidt, "A combustion-based MEMS thermoelectric power generator," in Proc.-11th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sens. and Act. (Transducers '01), 2001.
11. C. Zhang, K. Najafi, L. P. Bernal, and P. D. Washabough, "An integrated combustor-thermoelectric micro power generator," in Proc.-11th Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sens. and Act. (Transducers '01), 2001.
12. J. D. Holladay, E. O. Jones, M. Phelps, and J. Hu, "Microfuel processor for use in a miniature power supply," J. Power Sources, vol. 108, pp. 21-27, 2002.
13. D. R. Palo, J. D. Holladay, R. T. Rozmiarek, C. E. Guzman-Leong, Y. Wang, J. Hu, Y.-H. Chin, R. A. Dagle, and E. G. Baker, "Development of a soldier-portable fuel cell power system part I: A bread-board methanol fuel processor," J. Power Sources, vol. 108, pp. 28-34, 2002.
14. T. Kikas, H. Zhang, I. Bardenshteyn, E. Ejimofor, P. Puri, C. Phillips, and A. G. Fedorov, "Feedstock for micro fuel cells: Efficient hydrogen production in the reverse-flow autothermal catalytic microreactors with fractal structuring of the catalytically active surface," in Proc.-Int. Symp. Micro/Nanoscale Energy Conversion, 2002.
15. R. Changrani, S. Samms, S. Rogers, S. Tasic, D. Gervasio, and R. Koripella, "Reactor design and analysis of a miniature methanol steam reformer," in Preprints of Symposia-ACS, Div. Fuel Chemistry, vol. 46. 2001, pp. 476-478.
16. V. Cominos, S. Hardt, V. Hessel, G. Kolb, H. Lowe, M. Wichert, and R. Zapf, "A methanol steam micro-reformer for low power fuel cell applications," in Proc. -6th Int. Conf. on Microreact. Tech. (IMRET 6), 2002, pp. 113-124.
17. P. M. Irving, W. L. Allen, T. Healey, and Q. Ming, "Catalytic micro-reactor systems for hydrogen generation," in Proc. -5th Int. Conf. on Microreact. Tech. (IMRET 5), 2001, pp. 286-294.
18. A. V. Pattekar, M. V. Kothare, S. V. Karnik, and M. K. Hatalis, "A microreactor for in-situ hydrogen production by catalytic methanol reforming," in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Microreact. Tech. (IMRET 5), Strasbourg, France, 2001.
19. W. P. Hoffman, H. T. Phan, and P. G. Wapner, "The far-reaching nature of microtube technology," Mater. Res. Innov., vol. 2, pp. 87-96, 1998.
20. C. J. Geankoplis, Transport Processes and Unit Operations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993, vol. 1.
21. P. F. Man, C. H. Mastrangelo, M. A. Burns, and D. T. Burke, "Microfabricated capillarity-driven stop valve and sample injector," in Proc.-IEEE Annu. Int. Workshop Micro Electro Mech. Syst. (MEMS '98), 1998, pp. 45-50.
22. K. S. Lebouitz and A. P. Pisano, "Silicon nitride tubes for fluid flow and bubble growth visualization," in Proc.-Electrochem. Soc., vol. 98-14, 1998, pp. 77-86.
23. E. Hoffman, B. Warneke, E. Kruglick, J. Weigodl, and K. S. J. Pister, "3D structures with piezoresistive sensors in standard CMOS," in Proc.-IEEE Annu. Int. Workshop Micro Electro Mech. Syst. (MEMS '95), 1995.
24. M. W. Losey, M. A. Schmidt, and K. F. Jensen, "Microfabricated multi-phase packed-bed reactors: Characterization of mass transfer and reactions," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., vol. 40, pp. 2555-2562, 2001.
25. E. C. Guyer, Handbook of Applied Thermal Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989, pp. 1-51-1-54.
26. S. L. Firebaugh, K. F. Jensen, and M. A. Schmidt, "Investigation of high-temperature degradation of platinum thin films with an in situ resistance measurement apparatus," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 7, pp. 128-135, 1998.
27. P. Atkins, Physical Chemistry, 5th ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1994.
28. C. J. Glassbrenner and G. V. Slack, "Thermal conductivity of silicon and germanium from 3 K to the melting point," Phys. Rev., vol. 134, pp. A1058-A1069, 1963.
29. V. E. Peletskii, "The investigation of thermal conductivity of silicon nitride," High Temperature, vol. 31, pp. 727-730, 1993.
30. K. Hellgardt and D. Chadwick, "Effect of pH of precipitation on the preparation of high surface area aluminas from nitrate solutions," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., vol. 37, pp. 405-411, 1998.