Electrically Heated Screening Reactor

6 Methanol Steam Reforming 6 [MSR 6] Electrically Heated Screening Reactor 

Ziogas et al. [28] performed catalyst screening with this reactor with catalysts coatings, which were made of various base aluminas such as corundum, boehmite and y-alumina. Testing of Cu/Cr and Cu/Mn catalysts based on the different coatings for methanol steam reforming revealed differences in activity which were ascribed 

7 Development of Catalyst Coatings for Methanol Steam Reforming in Micro Channels 

After discussing the various test reactors, some work focusing more on catalyst development is presented below. 

A commercial Cu0/Zn0/Al203 catalyst was coated on quartz and fused silica capillaries by Bravo et al. [29] for methanol steam reforming and compared with packed-bed catalysts. The coatings had a thickness of 25 pm and showed 97% conversion and 97% selectivity towards carbon dioxide at 230 °C reaction temperature, a water/methanol molar feed composition of 1.1 and a space velocity of 45 kgcat s moh1 (methanol). 

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The reactors applied for catalyst evaluation are usually laboratory-type devices, which allow the removal of the microstructured plates after testing [2-9]. They are operated with electric power for heating and therefore are still far away from practical application. Therefore, the design of these reactors will not be discussed in detail here, bearing in mind that they are useful tools for catalyst screening and characterization. 

Numerous microreactors were developed for methanol steam reforming. Some of these reactors were still heated by electricity and carried exchangeable plates for catalyst screening [497-503]. However, these devices are bulky because space is required to carry gaskets and screws, and they are still far from any practical applications [504]. 

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