Micro Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS) devices enable at least two
areas of benefit due to the accelerated heat and mass transfer that can be
accomplished in microchannels. First, MECS devices enable process
intensification; the ability to reduce the volume of space needed to implement
systems of thermal and chemical...
Microchannel arrays are being developed across a wide spectrum of microfluidic applications including blood processing, fuel cells and thermal management among many others. Typical arrays are based on a flat laminated architecture produced in a vacuum hot press (VHP) through solid-state diffusion bonding. Due to the cylindrical nature of certain...
Microchannel process technology (MPT) components are chemical unit operations which exploit highly-parallel arrays of microchannels to process large fluid volumes for portable and distributed applications. Microchannel heat exchangers (MCHXs) have demonstrated 3 to 5 times higher heat fluxes when compared to conventional heat exchangers resulting in proportionate reductions in size...
A new adhesive bonding method is introduced for microlamination architectures, for producing low-temperature microchannel arrays in a wide variety of metals. Sheet metal embossing and chemical etching processes have been used to produce sealing bosses and flow features, resulting in approximately 50% fewer laminae over traditional methods. These lamina designs...
A significant barrier to the diffusion bonding of large (i.e. 600 mm) microchannel devices is the large capital investment required to setup production. This large capital investment extends from long heating and cooling cycles leading to poor production
capacities. Empirical studies in industry have shown that cooling rate is limited...
Micro Energy and Chemical Systems (MIECS) are multi-scale microsystems, which rely
on embedded nano and micro-scale features to process bulk amounts of fluid in
applications ranging from man-portable heat pumps, distributed fuel reforming and insitu
waste remediation. Microlamination is a well-known process architecture for
fabricating the highly parallel, high aspect...
Microchannel process technology (MPT) offers several advantages to the field of nanomanufacturing: 1) improved process control over very short time intervals owing to shorter diffusional distances; and 2) reduced reactor size due to high surface area to volume ratios and enhanced heat and mass transfer. The objective of this thesis...
The miniaturization of Microtechnology-based Energy, Chemical and Biological Systems (MECS) is made possible by the use of high aspect ratio microchannel arrays to increase the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the flow conduits within the devices, resulting in an improvement in the heat and mass transfer performance of the devices. However, advantages...
Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants have the potential to reduce the reliance on nonrenewable energies such as coal and natural gas and provide 24 hour, renewable electricity. A CSP system consists of a large field of heliostats that concentrate the sunlight on a centralized receiver, in this receiver a working...
High temperature microchannel heat recuperators (HTμRs) offer an efficient means of improving reactor process thermal efficiency by offering smaller form factors due to increased heat transfer surface area density and volumetric heat transfer rate over traditional heat exchanger designs. To date, HTμRs face cost and reliability challenges. In this work,...
