Application of etched aluminum flow-through membrane as catalyst support

• We addressed the development of novel catalyst supports membrane with penetration microchannels of ∼1–3.5 μm using wet-etched aluminum.
• We used membrane for flow-through catalyst and investigated activity of catalyst with methanol steam-reforming.
• We confirmed whether reactions occur in the ∼1–3.5 μm membrane microchannels.
• We evaluated the performance of this membrane compared with alumina granular.
• We present that there is no diffusive resistance at all temperatures because the membrane microchannel diffusive length is short.

We have developed novel catalyst supports using aluminum etched with microchannels as microreactors. The novel catalyst support contains ∼1–3.5 μm microchannels (∼10,000–15,000 microchannels/mm2) formed on the metal aluminum foil substrate by etching. Flow was through an applied porous membrane. The aim was to provide a reaction space with short controlled residence time and high catalytic activity. We confirmed whether reactions occur in the 1.7 μm membrane microchannels and evaluated the performance of this membrane compared with alumina granular. Methanol steam-reforming activity of the catalytic membrane shows it is an effective catalyst. Comparison with a crushed catalytic membrane shows that the reaction occurs in membrane microchannels. We deduce that there is no diffusive resistance at all temperatures because the membrane microchannel diffusive length is short compared with granular-type reactor channels.