High surface-to-volume hybrid platelet reactor filled with catalytically grown vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

During the last decade, microstructured reactors have received an impressive development in several fields of applications, especially in the field of catalysis where heat and mass transfers need to be improved. These reactors are generally consisting in sub-millimeter channels which exhibit an extremely high surface-to-volume ratios, typically in the range of 10,000-50,000 m(2) m(-3) compared to those of conventional reactors which lie between 100 and 1000 m(2) m(-3). In the present work we report the use of extremely high aspect ratio vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) which can be efficiently employed as a high surface-to-volume building-block for the platelet hybrid microstructured reactors. Due to the nanoscopic size of the filling material, such reactor displays an extremely high surface-to-volume ratio, expressed in terms of effective surface area along with an affordable pressure drop across the reactor. The assembly mode also allows the easy control (preparation and characterizations) and replacement of the catalyst, in case of deactivation or plugging, which is not a case for the traditional microstructured reactors. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.