Design of a Compact Microreactor/Heat-Exchanger for a Distributed Production of Liquid Hydrocarbons from Methanol

The paper compares conceptual designs of a microstructured reactor/heat-exchanger for the small-scale production of C8+ range hydrocarbons from methanol over H-ZSM-5 catalytic coatings. In these designs, air was used as a cooling fluid in the adjacent cooling channels. The heat transfer characteristics of a single-zone reactor (with channels 500 μm in diameter) and a two-zone reactor (with an additional coolant inlet) have been compared. A single reaction zone was not able to reduce the temperature gradient below 15 K, while a two-zone configuration, with a counter-current fluid flow in the upstream section and co-current flow in the downstream section, demonstrated a near-isothermal behaviour, with a mean temperature of 653 K.