Patent ID: 8263006

Claim:
A reactor comprising a reactor substrate, an upper manifold structure, and a lower manifold structure, wherein: the reactor substrate comprises a plurality of interior substrate channels that extend between the upper and lower manifold structures; the interior substrate channels of the reactor substrate are delineated into a plurality of relatively short open-ended channels and at least one relatively long serpentine channel; the relatively long serpentine channel comprises a relatively long serpentine flow path comprising flow path segments in adjacent ones of the interior substrate channels; the upper or lower manifold structure comprises an inlet region in fluid communication with at least one relatively short open-ended channel; the upper or lower manifold structure comprises an outlet region in fluid communication with at least one relatively short open-ended channel; the upper manifold structure and the lower manifold structure each comprise at least one flow directing cavity that reverses a flow direction of a fluid flowing through the relatively short open-ended channels between the upper and lower manifold structures; and the flow directing cavities of the upper and lower manifold structures are configured to direct fluid from the inlet region to the outlet region in an additional serpentine path defined by the flow direction reversals introduced by the upper and lower manifold structures.