"Catalytic Microreactors for Portable Power Generation addresses a problem of high relevance and increased complexity in energy technology. This thesis outlines an investigation into catalytic and gas-phase combustion characteristics in channel-flow, platinum-coated microreactors. The emphasis of the study is on microreactor/microturbine concepts for portable power generation and the fuels of interest are methane and propane. The author carefully describes numerical and experimental techniques, providing a new insight into the complex interactions between chemical kinetics and molecular transport processes, as well as giving the first detailed report of hetero-/homogeneous chemical reaction mechanisms for catalytic propane combustion. The outcome of this work will be widely applied to the industrial design of micro- and mesoscale combustors.

Nomenclature

Introduction

Experimental setup

Numerical models

Experimental and numerical investigation of the hetero/homogeneous combustion of lean propane/air mixtures over platinum

Experimental and numerical investigation of a propanefueled, catalytic, mesoscale combustor

Hetero/homogeneous combustion and stability maps in methanefueled catalytic microreactors

Stability of hetero/homogeneous combustion in propane and methanefueled catalytic microreactors: channel confinement and molecular transport effects

Numerical investigation on the startup of methanefueled, catalytic microreactors

Conclusions Summary Outlook