Patent ID: 7534402

Claim:
A method for forming a chemical microreactor comprising: forming at least one capillary microchannel within a substrate having at least one inlet and at least one outlet. forming at least one porous membrane. imbedding the porous membrane with at least one catalyst material, integrating at least one heater into the chemical microreactor, interfacing the capillary microchannel with a liquid chemical reservoir at the inlet of the capillary microchannel, interfacing the capillary microchannel with the porous membrane at the outlet of the capillary microchannel, such that gas flow moves in a horizontal direction from the inlet through the microchannel and moves in a vertical direction from the microchannel through the outlet, thereby producing a chemical microreactor comprising: a plurality of separate reaction microchannels within a silicon substrate, each reaction microchannel 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 fully integrated silicon chemically heated steam reforming microreactor that maintains gas separation between the reformer and heater microchannels is provided.