Abstract.Microchannel reactors promise to display unusually fast response behavior to sharp changes of feed composition in heterogeneous catalytic systems. In an attempt to use this feature for the elucidation of the transient kinetics and possibly for performance enhancement, three model reaction systems are selected. CFD assisted reactor design and catalyst preparation studies are presented.

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Fluid Dynamics in Microchannel Reactors. The possible benefits of using microchannel reactors in the chemical process industries have been under discussion for several years. Outstanding heat transfer properties, short residence times and short diffusion lengths are considered key advantages, while the cost of the approach and the pending question of long‐term stability are still major sources of skepticism. A good starting point for a feasibility study is to investigate some major fluid dynamic properties. For a unit consisting of hundreds of parallel microchannels, the pressure drop for the laminar flow is just a few millibar. However, at high gas flows the distribution over the numerous channels may become non‐uniform. It is shown how the resulting residence time distribution affects both the yield of intermediates in consecutive reactions, and step functions of the concentration during periodic operation, respectively. All in all, the results of the estimations are encouraging.

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