Development and Performance of a New Annular Centrifugal Contactor for Semi‐Industrial Scale

Abstract

Centrifugal contactors have several advantages such as low hold‐up volume, short residence time, low solvent degradation, small space requirements, and short start‐up time. Therefore, centrifugal contactors are favored for the reprocessing of spent fuel. Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, China (INET) has been developing annular centrifugal contactors since the late 1970s. Recently, a new annular centrifugal contactor for semi‐industrial scale, which the inside diameter of its rotor is 70 mm, has been developed to be used in nuclear industry. A modular design and an overflow structure design are adopted in the contactor. The hydraulic performance and the mass‐transfer efficiency have been studied in a single‐stage contactor and in a three‐stage cascade. The maximum total flow of the single stage contactor can reach 290 L/h at suitable operation conditions for H2O‐kerosene system. The extraction stage efficiency of the single‐stage contactor is greater than 95% at suitable operating conditions for extracting Nd3+ with 30% TRPO‐kerosene solution from Nd(NO3)3‐1 mol/L HNO3 solution and from the simulated high‐level liquid waste (HLLW). The hydraulic performance and the mass‐transfer efficiency of the three‐stage cascade are also excellent. Even though one stage or two nonadjacent stages ceased to work, the cascade can continue to run.