The transformation of lignocellulosic biomass into bio-based commodity chemicals is technically possible. Among thermochemical processes, fast pyrolysis, a relatively mature technology that has now reached a commercial level, produces a high yield of an organic-rich liquid stream. Despite recent efforts to elucidate the degradation paths of biomass during pyrolysis, the selectivity and recovery...

A critical barrier to the routine use of nanomaterials is the tedious, expensive means of their synthesis. Microreaction technology takes advantage of the large surface area-to-volume ratios within microchannel structures to accelerate heat and mass transport. This accelerated transport allows for rapid changes in reaction temperatures and concentrations leading to more uniform heating and mixi...

This work presents an application of microfabricated reactors and detectors for photochemical reactions. Two fabrication schemes were demonstrated for the integration of the reaction and the detection modules: coupling individually packaged chips, and monolithic integration of the two functions. In the latter fabrication scheme, we have succeeded in bonding quartz wafers to patterned silicon wa...

Dispersion and spreading of concentration signals in gas/liquid microreactors is studied with methods of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It is shown that conventional reactor designs exhibit a broad residence-time distribution due to convective signal dispersion. This result is supported by experiments monitoring the transport of a liquid plug introduced into the microreactor by a microdisp...

Deposit formation and fouling in reactors for polymer production processing especially microreactors is a well-known phenomenon. Despite the flow pressure loss optimized static mixers, occurs on surfaces of mixer elements. To improve performance such parts even further, stainless steel substrates are coated with ultra-thin films which have low surface energy, good adhesion, high durability. Per...