Recovery of deuterium from the separation of H–D gas mixture in concentric-tube thermal diffusion columns with transverse sampling streams

Abstract

The separation equations for predicting the recovery of deuterium from H–D gas mixture in a concentric-tube thermal diffusion column with transverse sampling streams, have been derived. The effects of column length, volume flow rate and operating pressure on the performance have been discussed. The degrees of separation, as well as separation factors, for deuterium recovery in the cryogenic-wall thermal diffusion columns were estimated, with the use of the transport coefficients correlated in the previous work from the experimental data obtained by Arita et al. The separation efficiencies obtained in feeding by transverse sampling streams are rather lower than those achieved by middle feeding.