Fuel processing microreactors for hydrogen production in micro fuel cell applications

The use of microreactors for in-situ and on-demand chemical processing and analysis is gaining increasing importance as the field of microreaction engineering matures from the stage of being regarded as a theoretical concept to a technology with significant industrial applications [1,2,3]. The objective of this work is to demonstrate a working microreaction system for use as a sustained source of hydrogen fuel for miniature proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells through the catalytic steam reforming of methanol. The complete reformer-fuel cell unit can be considered as an alternative to conventional sources of electricity such as batteries for laptop computers and mobile phones due to its ability to provide an uninterrupted supply of electricity as long as a supply of methanol and water can be provided. The microreformer-fuel cell combination has the advantage of not requiring the tedious recharging cycles needed by conventional rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Also, the energy storage density per unit volume/weight of this system is higher than that of batteries, which translates into less frequent 'recharging' through the refilling of methanol fuel.