The Use of Cryogenically Cooled 5A Molecular Sieves for Large Volume Reduction of Tritiated Hydrogen Gas
- Kinectrics Inc., 800 Kipling Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M8Z 6C4 (Canada)
A commercial hydrogen isotope separation system based on gas chromatography (AGC-ISS) has been built. The system operates in two modes: stripping and volume reduction. The purpose of the stripping mode is to reduce a large volume of tritiated hydrogen gas to a small volume of tritium rich hydrogen gas. The results here illustrate the effectiveness of the AGC-ISS in the stripping and volume reduction phases. Column readiness for hydrogen isotope separation is confirmed by room temperature air separation tests. Production runs were initially carried out using natural levels of deuterium (110-160 ppm) in high purity hydrogen. After completion of the deuterium/hydrogen runs the system began operations with tritiated hydrogen. The paper presents details of the AGC-ISS design and results of tritium tests. The heart of the AGC-ISS consists of two packed columns (9 m long, 3.8 cm OD) containing 5A molecular sieve material of 40/60 mesh size. Each column has 5 individually controlled heaters along the length of the column and is coiled around an inverted inner dewar. The coiled column and inner dewar are both contained within an outer dewar. In this arrangement liquid nitrogen, used to cryogenically cool the columns, flows into and out off the annular space defined by the two dewars, allowing for alternate heating and cooling cycles. Tritiated hydrogen feed is injected in batch quantities. The batch size is variable with the maximum quantity restricted by the tritium concentration in the exhausted hydrogen. The stripping operations can be carried out in full automated mode or in full manual mode. The average cycle time between injections is about 75 minutes. To date, the maximum throughput achieved is 10.5 m{sup 3}/day. A total of 37.8 m{sup 3} of tritiated hydrogen has been processed during commissioning. The system has demonstrated that venting of >99.95% of the feed gas is possible while retaining 99.98% of the tritium. At a maximum tritium concentration of {approx}7 GBq/m{sup 3} (190 mCi/m{sup 3}), processing tritiated hydrogen gas at a rate of 8.1 m{sup 3} (NTP)/day results in an average tritium concentration in the process effluent line of 1.4 MBq/m{sup 3} (37 {mu}Ci/m{sup 3}). The average process exhaust flow, split between helium and hydrogen, is 10.6 litre/min. Product from the stripping phase is stored on a 5 kg depleted uranium bed. A 250 g depleted uranium bed is available for storage of enriched product. Several, ionization type, tritium sensors are located throughout the process to control emissions, control valve switching, and monitor evolution of tritiated species from the columns. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21208670
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06195; TRN: US09V0981079457
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 6 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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