Patent Application
20140048203
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method of disposing catalyst, in particular to a method of disposing catalyst in reformer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the global warming and energy crisis have been an emerging issue around the world. For this reason, it's necessary to develop green, clean and renewable energies to solve such problems. In varieties of eco-friendly methods to create energies, fuel cells have emerged advantageously as alternative power sources owing to their high overall system efficiency and eco-friendly nature. For instance, one of the attractive applications is the use of the fuel cells in portable electronics so that the fuel cells are becoming striking alternatives to conventional lithium ion batteries.
There are mainly two types of small fuel cells can be used: direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). DMFC can be operated at lower temperature but supplies low power density. The low power density of DMFC is because of methanol crossover through the membrane and the low reaction rate of methanol oxidation at anodic catalyst. On the contrary, PEMFC, which requires gaseous H2 as fuel, have higher power density than DMFC because of less fuel crossover at the membrane. Hence, a system with a stable supply of H2 gas is prerequisite for the development of PEMFC. Accordingly, the ways of effectively coating catalysts in the channels of the reformer is crucial to the efficiency of the reformer.
Conventionally, slurry method is widely used in the art for the reason that few apparatuses, such as needles or brushes, are needed to coating catalysts in the channels of a reformer. Yet, the slurry method may only coat a thin layer of catalysts in the channel, and the thin layer of catalysts would not sufficiently react with the methanol to generate H2 gas, which results in low efficiency of the reformer. Moreover, the distribution pattern of the catalyst in the channels affects the efficiency of the reformer as well. Conventionally, the distribution pattern of the catalysts is mostly circular shape, which may lead to non-uniform catalysts utilization. Thus, how to maximize the efficiency of the reformer and the amount of catalysts coated in the channel has become the major issue in the art.
Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method of disposing catalyst in a reformer to achieve the effect of increasing the gradient-thickness of catalysts in the channels and enhancing the H2 gas generating efficiency of the reformer.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a method of disposing catalyst in a reformer comprising steps of providing a silicon-based substrate with a predetermined pattern thereon; providing a cover with an inlet hole and an outlet hole therein; bonding the silicon-based substrate with the cover; and disposing a catalyst solution on a wall of the predetermined pattern by centrifuging in a predetermined speed for a predetermined time so as to obtain a catalyst layer with a gradient-thickness on the wall.
Preferably, the gradient-thickness may be gradually thicker towards a centrifugal direction.
Preferably, the cover may comprise Pyrex glass.
Preferably, the silicon-based substrate may be bonded to the cover via anodic bonding.
Preferably, the predetermined pattern may be formed by photolithography and deep silicon reactive ion etching (DRIE) sequentially.
Preferably, the predetermined time may be between 1 to 10 minutes.
Preferably, the predetermined time may be further between 2 to 5 minutes.
Preferably, the predetermined speed may be between 1000 to 5000 rpm.
Preferably, the predetermined speed may be further between 1500 to 3000 rpm.
Preferably, a surface of the catalyst layer may be coarse and irregular.
Preferably, the method may further comprise a step of treating the predetermined pattern with an oxygen plasma so that the wall of the predetermined pattern is hydrophilic.
Preferably, the method may further comprise a step of drying the catalyst layer in an oven after disposing the catalyst solution on the wall.
Preferably, the method may further comprise repeating the steps of disposing the catalyst solution on the wall and drying the catalyst layer so as to increase the gradient-thickness of the catalyst layer.
Preferably, the catalyst solution may comprise a catalyst, distilled water and a binder.
Preferably, the catalyst may comprise copper, manganese and zinc.
Preferably, the binder may comprise boehmite and bentonite.
The method of disposing catalyst in a reformer according to the present invention adopt a centrifugation to obtain a catalyst layer with a gradient-thickness on a wall of the pattern, so that the present invention has the following advantages:
(1) The method of disposing catalyst in a reformer of the present invention can provide a catalyst layer with coarse and irregular surface so as to make the catalysts to react with methanol efficiently.
(2) The method of disposing catalyst in a reformer of the present invention can provide a catalyst layer with gradient-thickness so as to make the catalysts to react with methanol completely.
The detailed structure, operating principle and effects of the present invention will now be described in more details hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings that show various embodiments of the invention as follows.
The technical content of the present invention will become apparent by the detailed description of the following embodiments and the illustration of related drawings as follows.
With reference to
S11: providing a silicon-based substrate 10 with a predetermined pattern thereon;
S12: providing a cover 11 with an inlet hole 111 and an outlet hole 112 therein;
S13: bonding the silicon-based substrate 10 with the cover 11; and
S14: disposing a catalyst solution 12 on a wall of the predetermined pattern by centrifuging in a predetermined speed for a predetermined time so as to obtain a catalyst layer 13 with a gradient-thickness on the wall.
In a preferred embodiment, the gradient-thickness of the catalyst layer 13 is gradually thicker towards a centrifugal direction 21 as shown in
In a preferred embodiment, a silicon-based substrate 10 with a predetermined pattern formed by photolithography and deep silicon reactive ion etching (DRIE) sequentially was provided. Wherein, the silicon-based substrate 10 may be a silicon wafer. The pattern was designed and formed on a silicon wafer as channels 101 of a reformer by photolithography. Then, the silicon wafer with designed pattern was subjected to be etched by deep silicon reactive ion etching, forming channels 101 on the silicon wafer. In addition, the silicon wafer with channels 101 was subsequently treated with oxygen plasma so that the channels 101 would be hydrophilic.
In a preferred embodiment, a cover 11 comprising Pyrex glass was provided. The cover 11 comprising Pyrex glass was cut by LASER to form an inlet hole 111 and an outlet hole 112 in the cover 11. After that, the cover 11 with the inlet hole 111 and the outlet hole 112 was bonded to the silicon-based substrate 10 by anodic bonding, forming a prototype of reformer for the fuel cells. Nevertheless, the methods of bonding the cover 11 to the silicon-based substrate 10 may be varied and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.
Next, a catalyst solution 12 is prepared. Preferably, the catalyst solution 12 may contain well-mixed catalysts, H2O and binders. In an embodiment, briefly, 10 mL H2O was mixed with a constant content of a catalyst and a specific amount of binder, and well-mingled catalyst solution 12 was then mixed by stirring and sonicating for 1 hour so that the catalyst solution 12 may be obtained to be disposed in the channels 101. Wherein, the binders may comprise boehmite and bentonite, and the catalysts may comprise copper, manganese and zinc. The contents of the binders and the catalysts may be varied and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.
With reference to
In the following, the efficiency of the reformers in accordance with present invention and conventional method will be compared with each other. Firstly, the reformer was disposed on the hotplate to be heated to the required temperature for testing. Afterward, reactive gaseous were sent in the inlet hole of the reformer in the flow rate of 2 (mL/min) via mass flow controller to transform methanol into hydrogen gas, accompanying with some of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water. Then, the variety of gas would be analyzed through gas chromatography (GC) to indentify the performance of reformer.
The methanol conversion rate (COV. %), hydrogen selectivity (SH2) were calculated via the following Eq.(1) and Eq. (2), respectively:
wherein, n1: nMeOHin; n2: nMeOHout
wherein, n1 is the amount of steam methanol sent into the reformer, n2 is the remained amount of steam methanol that was used, nH2 and nH2O are the amount of the generated hydrogen and water gas, respectively.
With reference to
In summation of the description above, the method of disposing catalyst in a reformer by a centrifugation process according to the present invention provides a catalyst layer with gradient-thickness, and coarse and irregular surface, so as to increase reaction area between catalysts and methanol. Thus, the methanol may sufficiently and completely react with the catalyst layer in the reformer to generate hydrogen gas, and the methanol conversion rate, the hydrogen selectivity and the hydrogen yield would be maximized so as to be stable and reliable hydrogen source for the fuel cells.
While the means of specific embodiments in present invention has been described by reference drawings, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims. The modifications and variations should in a range limited by the specification of the present invention.
