Ignition stage for a high temperature combustor

Abstract

A catalytic reactor serves as the ignition stage for a multi-stage combustor. In one embodiment, the catalytic reactor includes a stack of corrugated metal strips, each strip having a catalyst coating on exactly one side, wherein a coated side of one strip faces an uncoated side of the adjacent strip. Thus, the reactor defines channels each having two walls, exactly one of which bears a catalyst coating. Another embodiment takes the form of a spiral formed by winding two strips, each strip having a catalyst coating on one side. The coated side of one strip faces the uncoated side of the other. Thus, the spiral includes channels having a catalyst coating on only one wall. In still another embodiment, a single strip has bands of coated and uncoated regions on both sides. At any given point on the strip, one side of the strip has a catalyst coating and the other side has no coating. One forms the catalytic reactor by folding the strip back and forth upon itself, in a zigzag pattern, and enclosing the folded strip within a canister.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.