Stainless steel microchannel foils

Actually, various efforts have been made to develop the compact and efficient microchannel PrOx reactor for portable PEMFC applications. Goerke et al. [2] reported micro PrOx reactor employing stainless steel microchannel foil and Cu/Ce02 catalyst. They showed more than 99% CO conversion at less than 150 C and residence time of 14ms while CO selectivity was about 20%. Chen et al. [3] also developed microchannel reactor made of... 

Figure 1.7 Surface quality of a stainless steel microchannel foil machined by laser ablation. The laser parameters have been incorrectly set.

Figure 1.14 Cut through a diffusion-bonded cross-flow arrangement of stainless steel microchannel foils. The crystal growth over the borderlines between the single foils is clearly shown. Thus, diffusion bonding led to the formation of a monolithic stainless steel device.

Figure 1.1 Wet chemically etched microchannels in a stainless steel foil.

Kiipper et al. carried out a methoxylation reaction of 4-methoxytoluene in an electrochemical microreactor in which a glass carbon anode and a stainless steel cathode were separated by a microchannel foil 25 pm thick [54], The chemical resistance of the microchannel foils was very important because of the evolution of hydrogen and oxygen gases and the strong pH shifts during electrolysis. PEEK was found to be the most robust material. They also observed that selectivity of the oxidation of 4-methoxytoluene in acidified methanolic solution (pH 1, sulfuric acid) was influenced by the current density and flow rate. 

Figure 2.10 Microchannels manufactured in a stainless-steel foil by embossing.

---