Patent ID: 6960235

Claim:
A microreactor comprising: a plurality of separate reaction microchannels within a silicon substrate, each reaction microchannel having at least one inlet and at least one outlet, at least one of the reaction microchannels comprising a steam reformer for a hydrogen-containing fuel having a reforming catalyst material between the at least one inlet and the at least one outlet, and at least one other of the reaction microchannels comprising an integrated catalytic microcombustion heater having at least one heater catalyst material between the at least one inlet and the at least one outlet, wherein at least one of the at least one inlet and the at least one outlet for each of the plurality of separate reaction microchannels is an additional non-reaction microchannel oriented non-parallel to the corresponding reaction microchannel, whereby a full integrated silicon chemically heated steam reforming microreactor that maintains gas separation between the reformer and heater microchannels is provided.