Separation of hydrogen isotopes by heatless adsorption

✍ Scribed by Kenny Weaver; Charles E. Hamrin Jr.

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 753 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(74)85004-9

✦ Synopsis

A hydrogen stream containing 5.5% deuterium has been continuously separated using a single staged heatless adsorber packed with metallic palladium deposited on alumina. Enrichments of up to 17.5 per cent have been achieved. Eleven heatless adsorption runs were made to examine the effect of the purge to feed ratio and cycle time. A Mass Balance Model was developed which correctly predicted the effect of these parameters on separation. Additional runs were made to determine breakthrough at the two operating pressures of 19.7 and 114.7 psi.

As the purge to feed ratio, 7, increased from 0 to 3.0 better separations were achieved although the quantity of product decreased. A critical value of y appeared to be in the range 1.0-1.2. As the cycle time increased from I to 8 min, the quantity of product increased, but the magnitude of the separations