Reactor manufacturing method for a fuel cell processor

A method to manufacture a catalytic bed for an vehicle fuel processor comprising the steps of:

• providing a metal foil having a desired aperture pattern and a plurality of both aperture shapes and sizes;
• shaping the metal foil to form a repeating pattern;
• heat-treating the patterned foil in preparation for at least one washcoat;
• coating the heat-treated foil pattern with at least one washcoat;
• applying at least one catalyst over a preselected area of the coated foil pattern to form a graded catalyst formation;
• forming a geometric shape from at least two layers of the coated foil pattern to form the catalytic bed;
• and
• positioning each layer of the catalytic bed to preclude overlapping the aperture pattern.

A method to provide turbulent flow of reactant in all regions of a catalytic bed comprising the steps of:

• disposing both an aperture pattern and a channel pattern in a metal foil;
• forming a plurality of layers with said apertured and patterned foil into a geometric configuration having a plurality of adjacently spaced layers;
• spacing each of the plurality of layers of the geometric configuration to offset the aperture pattern between any two adjacently spaced layers;
• and
• fixing the plurality of offset layers to form a catalytic bed having a network of flowpaths each providing for a turbulent flow throughout the catalytic bed in both an axial direction and a radial direction.

A catalyst bed reactive to reform a complex hydrocarbon feed stream flowing through a fuel processing system, said catalyst bed comprising:

• a foil sheet having a plurality of channels providing a plurality of axial flow paths in the catalyst bed and having a plurality of apertures formed therethrough;
• said plurality of channels forming a foil pattern in the at least one foil sheet;
• said foil sheet being formed into a plurality of sheet layers having a foil pattern mismatch to preclude foil pattern nesting between layers;
• said plurality of apertures being located in said foil sheet for providing both radial and circumferential flow paths in the catalyst bed;
• and
• said foil sheet having a catalyst loading throughout said plurality of channels and said plurality of apertures.