The high surface to volume ratio of microchannel components offers many advantages in micro chemical engineering. It is obvious, however, that the reactor material and corrosion phenomena play an important role when applying these components. For chemical reactions at very high temperatures or/and with corrosive reactants involved, microchannel components made of metals or polymers are not suited. Hence, a modular microreactor system made of alumina was developed and fabricated using a rapid prototyping process chain. With exchangeable inserts the system can be adapted to the requirements of various reactions. Two heterogeneously catalysed gas-phase reactions (oxidative coupling of methane, isoprene selective oxidation to citraconic anhydride) were investigated to check the suitability of the system at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees C. Apart from the high thermal and chemical resistance, the lack of any blind activity was found to be another advantage of ceramic components.
Ceramic microreactors can be used for applications that cannot be covered by metal or polymer systems, because special material properties, such as high thermal and chemical resistance are required. However, application of ceramic microcomponents often fails due to the time-consuming and costly manufacturing of components with patterning details in the micrometer range. A promising solution to this problem is a rapid prototyping process chain. It offers a fast and precise fabrication of ceramic components down to the micrometer range by combining stereolithography and low-pressure ceramic injection molding. Its fast and¯exible tooling allows rapid product development and manufacturing of ceramic components as functional models or in small series. For use in chemical microreaction technology, a modular ceramic microreactor with inner dimensions in the submillimeter range has now been developed by means of this process chain.
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