Oxidation of organic compounds in a microstructured catalytic reactor

A microstructured catalytic reactor for the oxidation of organic compounds has been fabricated from aluminum alloy AlMgSiCu1 (6082 series, Al51st). The catalyst section was assembled of 63 microstructured plates with catalytic coating. In each plate of 416 µm thickness, 45 semi-cylindrical microchannels of 208 µm in radius with a distance in between of 150 µm were electrodischarge machined. A porous alumina layer of 29 ± 1 µm thickness was produced on the plates by anodic oxidation. The resulting coatings were impregnated with an aqueous solution of copper dichromate followed by drying and calcination at 450 °C to produce active catalysts. Kinetics of deep oxidation of organic compounds n-butane, ethanol, and isopropanol was studied in the reactor at 150–360 °C and of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, UDMH) at 200–375 °C. Intermediate reaction products in the reactions of alcohols and UDMH oxidation were identified. For UDMH, these are methane, dimethylamine, formaldehyde 1,1-dimethylhydrazone, and 1,2-dimethyldiazene. Nitrogen atoms from the UDMH and N-containing intermediates were shown to convert mainly to N2. Kinetic parameters of the reactions of n-butane and alcohols (rate constants and apparent activation energies) were calculated using kinetic modeling based on a modified method of quickest descent.