High Channel Density Ceramic Microchannel Reactor for Syngas Production

Estelle le Saché, Panayiotis Tsaousis, Tomas Ramirez Reina and Enrique Ruiz-Trejo
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Estelle le Saché: Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Chemical & Process Engineering Department, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Panayiotis Tsaousis: Smart Separations Ltd., The Technology Centre Surrey Research Park, Guildford GU2 7YG, UK
Tomas Ramirez Reina: Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Chemical & Process Engineering Department, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Enrique Ruiz-Trejo: Smart Separations Ltd., The Technology Centre Surrey Research Park, Guildford GU2 7YG, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-12

Abstract: Solid oxide fuel cells can operate with carbonaceous fuels, such as syngas, biogas, and methane, using either internal or external reforming, and they represent a more efficient alternative to internal combustion engines. In this work, we explore, for the first time, an alumina membrane containing straight, highly packed (461,289 cpsi), parallel channels of a few micrometers (21 µm) in diameter as a microreformer. As a model reaction to test the performance of this membrane, the dry reforming of methane was carried out using nickel metal and a composite nickel/ceria as catalysts. The samples with intact microchannels were more resistant to carbon deposition than those with a powdered sample, highlighting the deactivation mitigation effect of the microchannel structure. The coke content in the microchannel membrane was one order of magnitude lower than in the powder catalyst. Overall, this work is a proof of concept on the use of composite alumina membrane as microchannel reactors for high temperature reactions.

Keywords: microreformer; dry reforming; microchannel reactor; gadolinium doped ceria; Ni catalyst (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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