Surface Morphology Of A Catalytic Wall Microreactor Constructed By Direct Metal Laser Sintering Process

Abstract

Micro-reactors technology have attracted considerable interest in chemical processing due to their potential advantages regarding improvements on mass and heat transfer, smaller size, energy and cost saving and safety. Various types of micro-structured reactors have been developed in the last decade. Among them, the most promising concept considers stacked systems of channelled metallic platelets, coated with active catalysts. This systems are fabricated using any traditional tooling, but in this work a relatively new technology enabling that three-dimensional parts can be easily fabricated was used. It is based on DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering), a process that uses a metal powder and a laser beam to produce directly metal parts. This process is one of a few Rapid Prototyping (RP) technologies which possess the capability to produce metal parts and prototype tools directly from powders with a high precision. In this paper a micro-channels plate was fabricated using DMLS process and micro-channels surface for catalyst deposition was evaluated. The results of SEM study reveal that a porous surface on the walls was formed because powder was not wholly sintered. For microchannels plate applied for gas-phase reactions this porous surface is especially interesting because the surface area is increased and the mass of catalysts impregnated on the walls can also be increased, which consequently improves the conversion of products. Thus, the DMLS not only can facilitates the rapid development of catalytic wall microreactors, but also permit the control of the structures formed during sintering which are extremely relevant for some processes in micro-reactors for gas and liquid phase. © 2011, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.24223228Cai, W., Wang, F., Van Veen, A., Descorme, C., Schuurman, Y., Shen, W., Mirodatos, C., Hydrogen production from ethanol steam reforming in a micro-channel reactor (2010) International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 35, pp. 1152-1159(2009) EOSint M 270 User Manual, , EOSGu, D., Shen, Y., Processing conditions and microstructural features of porous 316L stainless steel components by DMLS (2008) Applied Surface Science, 255, pp. 1880-1887Hessel, V., Lowe, H., Müller, A., Kolb, G., (2005) Chemical Micro Process Engineering: Processing and Plants, , Wiley-VCH, WeinheimJardini, A.L., Costa, M.C.B., Bineli, A.R.R., Romao, A.F., Filho, R.M., Operability analysis and conception of microreactor by integration of reverse engineering and rapid manufacturing (2008) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, pp. 853-858Khaing M.W, Fuh J.Y.H, Lu, L., Direct metal laser sintering for rapid tooling: Processing and characterisation of EOS parts (2001) Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 113 (1-3), pp. 269-272. , DOI 10.1016/S0924-0136(01)00584-2, PII S0924013601005842Kiwi-Minsker, L., Renken, A., Microstructured reactors for catalytic reactions (2005) Catalysis Today, 110, pp. 2-14Kolb, G., Schurer, J., Tiemann, D., Wichert, M., Zapf, R., Hessel, V., Lowe, H., Fuel processing in integrated micro-structured heat-exchanger reactors (2007) Journal of Power Sources, 171 (1), pp. 198-204. , DOI 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.01.006, PII S0378775307000997, Scientific Advances in Fuel Cell SystemsMen, Y., Kolb, G., Zapf, R., Hessel, V., Lowe, H., Ethanol steam reforming in a microchannel reactor (2007) Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 85 (5 B), pp. 413-418. , DOI 10.1205/psep07015Senthilkumaran, K., Pandey, P.M., Rao, P.V.M., Influence of building strategies on the accuracy of parts in selective laser sintering (2009) Materials & Design, 30, pp. 2946-295