Foliations and Geometric Structures (Mathematics and Its Applications, Vol. 580)

Micro process engineering is approaching both academia and industry. With the provision of micro devices, systems and whole plants by commercial suppliers, one main barrier for using these units has been eliminated.
This book focuses on processes and their plants rather than on devices: what is 'before', 'behind' and 'around' micro device fabrication - and gives a comprehensive and detailed overview on the micro-reactor plants and three topic-class applications which are mixing, fuel processing, and catalyst screening. Thus, the book reflects the current level of development from 'micro-reactor design' to 'micro-reactor process design'.

Volker Hessel, born 1964, was appointed Vice Director R&D and Head of the Chemical Process Technology Department at the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM) in 2002. His department focuses on mixing, fine chemistry, and energy generation by fuel processing using microstructured reactors. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Mainz on organic chemistry in 1993, investigating structure-property relations of supramolecular structures. After having been appointed Group Leader for Microreaction Technology at the IMM in 1996, he became Head of the newly founded Department of Microreaction Technology in 1999. He is author of more than 90 peer-reviewed publications in the field of organic chemistry and chemical micro process engineering, 200 papers in total, 3 books and 15 patents.

Holger Löwe, born in 1953, was appointed as Professor for Chemical Micro Process Technology at the Chemistry, Pharmaceutics and Earth Sciences Department of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 2005. He studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig and obtained his Ph.D. on alkylation of phenols in 1984 after working as Research Group Leader at the Filmfabrik Wolffen from 1977 to 1984. The same year, he moved to the Faculty of Electrochemistry at the Technical University in Ilmenau, where he was Head of the Chemistry Section at the internal college. He joined the IMM in 1991. After becoming Leader of the Electrochemistry Group and subsequently, Head of the Chemistry/Microreaction Technology Department, he was appointed Director of R&D in 1999. He is author of more than 280 publications and 30 patents.

Andreas Müller has been working as manager of the Application Technology Department of KIEFEL Extrusion GmbH since 2004. He graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt in mechanical and process engineering in 1993, then joined Lurgi-Zimmer AG as a process engineer and worked later as a R&D manager for the development of fiber extrusion plants. In 1999, he changed to the IMM, where he finished his Ph.D. in 2003. From 2001 to 2004, he was a group leader in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the same institute. He holds several patents, has published more than 20 contributions in refereed journals and conference proceedings, and is co-author of a book about catalyst screening.

Gunther Kolb, born 1963, was appointed Leader for Heterogeneous Catalysis and Process Engineering Group at the IMM in 2001. The group's activities are focused on fuel processing for fuel cells. He studied chemical engineering and obtained his Ph.D. in reaction engineering at the University of Erlangen in 1993, after which he joined the Federal Export Office in Eschborn to work on the implementation of the Chemical Weapon Convention. In 1995, he joined GRACE Davison Europe in Worms working as professional in the Catalyst Evaluation and Catalyst Development departments. He is the author of more than 20 publications in the fields of zeolite catalysis, supercritical fluids and fuel processing in microstructured devices.