Design and Fabrication of a High-Throughput Microreactor and Its Evaluation for Highly Exothermic Reactions

The effect of distributor and channel positions on flow uniformity in a high-throughput reactor is studied using a COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS, CFD package. The best design is subsequently fabricated and evaluated for propane total oxidation reaction at low conversions. Comparison of our design with a literature design is also presented. The results indicate that the conical distributor performs significantly better in terms of flow uniformity as compared to the commonly used disc shaped distributor. The flow uniformity is improved when the central channel is removed from the design, indicating that the channel arrangement also affects the flow uniformity. The experimental results on flow uniformity are in good agreement with simulation. The deviation in conversion of propane from channel to channel is within experimental error, indicating that the reactor can reliably screen catalysts and deliver kinetics. A half a dozen catalysts were tested for complete propane oxidation using the developed technology.

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