Micro-Conversion Technology

Over the past five years the interest in Micro-conversion reactor technology has increased enormously. The main focus is on the manufacture of very small connectable units into reactors and mini-plants, often referred to as lab-on-a-chip applications. The general idea behind this SIP is to investigate whether cheaper, out-of-clean-room manufacturing techniques can be exploited to manufacture and/or optimize micro-reactors.

Two main research themes have been identified to be of particular interest:

1)	Dispersed multiphase flows in micro-channels (in particular, how surface texturing can be exploited to reduce drag and/or enhance mass transfer).

2)	Ceramic micro-reactor manufacturing using 3D printing

Application of ceramic membranes in industrial processes is usually hampered by sealing problems of the ceramic membranes in a metal housing. With 3D printing, the entire reactor unit could in principle be printed together, possibly even with integrated catalytic activity. If successful, this could open a wide field of applications, among which membrane reactors with integrated air separation are extremely interesting (and challenging).

Two projects have been defined to start the research in the above research themes:

·	Hydrophobic patterned surfaces for micro-conversion and drag reduction

·	Micro catalytic-ceramic membrane reactors by combining 3D-printing and sintering techniques