A radial microfluidic fuel processor

A novel radial flow packed-bed microreactor has been developed to enable hydrogen delivery in miniature fuel cells for portable power generation using the methanol reforming process. Conventional rectangular microchannel based designs typically used for on-chip chemical processing were found to be inadequate for practical high-throughput micro packed-bed application due to the associated high pressure drops. The radial design exploits several physical phenomena inherent to the device operation and provides an order of magnitude reduction in the required driving pressure while maintaining the compact design of the microreactor and providing greater than 98% conversion of methanol to hydrogen at flow rates sufficient to supply hydrogen to a 20 W fuel cell. The developed microreactor opens the path for fuel cell based portable energy systems with energy storage capacities up to 10 times those possible with current battery technology.