Patent ID: 7967878

Claim:
A reforming apparatus, comprising: a multiple adiabatic bed reformer, including; a stack of plates bonded together, each plate having paths and openings formed therein, wherein the paths form microchannels and the openings form chambers when the plates are bonded together to form the stack; successive reforming chambers which are formed by a first group of openings when the plates are bonded together to form the stack and into which reforming reactants are fed through a first group of microchannels and in which successive reforming reactions occur, successive combustion chambers which are formed by a second group of openings when the plates are bonded together to form the stack and into which air and fuel are fed through a second group of microchannels and in which successive combustions occur to provide heat to the reforming reactants through heat exchangers, and wherein the heat exchange occurs through a cross-flow configuration; and a fuel distribution system comprising a plurality of separate fuel delivery microchannels that form a portion of the second group of microchannels and wherein each separate fuel delivery microchannel extends to a designated combustion chamber, wherein the fuel delivery microchannels are configured to provide fuel to their designated combustion chambers in laminar flow, and wherein at least a portion of the fuel delivery microchannels are configured to provide a decreasing amount of fuel to each successive combustion chamber in a passively controlled manner.