A new pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for recovery of tritium from the ITER solid ceramic breeder helium purge gas

Conference · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Fusion Technology; (United States)

OSTI ID:5101955

Sood, S K; Fong, C; Kalyanam, K M ^[1]; Kveton, O K ^[2]; Busigin, A ^[3]; Ruthven, D M ^[4]

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1. Ontario Hydro, Toronto, ON (Canada)
2. Canadian Fusion Fuels Technology Project, Mississauga, ON (Canada)
3. NITEK Corp., 939 Griffith Street, London, Ontario N6K 3S2 (CA)
4. New Brunswick Power, Fredericton, NB (Canada)

This paper reports on Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), a well established industrial process for separating and purifying industrial gases, it is proposed for recovery of hydrogen isotopes from the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) solid breeder He purge stream. The PSA process has an inherent advantage over a recently proposed Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) design because it allows much faster cycling (10 vs. 480 min.) and therefore has significantly (48 times) lower tritium inventory. The maximum tritium inventory for a 10 minute PSA cycle is less than 0.5 g of tritium, thus meeting an important safety goal of ITER. The PSA process is based on using molecular sieve 5A at 77 K, with pressure cycling from 1-2 MPa during the adsorption cycle, to a rough vacuum during regeneration. Experiments have been carried out to confirm the H{sub 2}/He adsorption isotherms on molecular sieve 5A, and to develop new data points at low H{sub 2} partial pressures and a temperature of 77 K. A dynamic simulation model has been developed to facilitate system design and optimization.

• OSTI ID: 5101955
• Report Number(s): CONF-910920-; CODEN: FUSTE
• Journal Information: Fusion Technology; (United States), Vol. 21:2; Conference: 4. topical meeting on tritium technology in fission, fusion, and isotopic applications, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 29 Sep - 4 Oct 1991; ISSN 0748-1896
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Ma
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ITER TOKAMAK
EXHAUST GASES
TRITIUM
BIOLOGICAL RECOVERY
ADSORPTION
ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS
BREEDING BLANKETS
CERAMICS
GASES
HELIUM
HYDROGEN
MEDIUM PRESSURE
MOLECULAR SIEVES
SIMULATION
SOLIDS
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0065-0273 K
ADSORBENTS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASEOUS WASTES
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTHERMS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE GASES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
SORPTION
TEMPERATURE RANGE
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
700480* - Fusion Technology- Component Development
Materials Studies- (1992-)
700410 - Specific Fusion Devices & Experiments- (1992-)
990200 - Mathematics & Computers