High Channel Density Ceramic Microchannel Reactor for Syngas Production

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.