Patent ID: 7714258

Claim:
A process for creating a useful energy product from a chemical species flow comprising passing the chemical species flow through a macroscopic artificial dielectric structure for a gas-permeable susceptor, and subjecting the structure to applied electromagnetic energy, the structure consisting of first regions and second regions, the first regions and the second regions having different depths of penetration of the applied electromagnetic energy, the depth of penetration of the first regions being greater than the depth of penetration of the second regions, wherein: (a) the first regions are discontinuously interspersed at least a certain distance from each other between and among the second regions, (b) the transmission of the applied electromagnetic energy by the first regions provides a means for increase interaction between the applied electromagnetic energy and the chemical species flow, (c) the transmission of the applied electromagnetic energy by the first regions provides a means for increased interaction between the applied electromagnetic energy and the second regions in the gas-permeable susceptor to interact with the second regions, and (d) the distance between each of the first regions and a volume fraction of the of the structure that the first regions make up assists the applied electromagnetic energy to penetrate the structure and to interact volumetrically with the susceptor and the chemical species flow passing through the susceptor and allows for the synthesis of the useful energy product.