Centrifugal Separation of Carbon Isotopes Using Carbon Tetrafluoride as Processing Gas

Abstract

At present, the application of carbon isotope is becoming more and more extensive, especially in the field of medical testing, and the demand for 13C in high abundance is fast increasing. Using carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) as separation medium, study on centrifugal separation of carbon isotopes was carried out. Single-centrifuge experiments were done based on modified domestic gas centrifuges. As a result, the separation factor and single-centrifuge separative power under different working conditions were obtained. Based on the results of single-centrifuge separation experiments, cascade calculation of the enrichment of 13C isotope was conducted by ideal cascade. According to calculation results, through two cascade separations, 13C isotope could be enriched from 30% to above 99% in abundance. The study laid a good basement for production of 13C isotope in high abundance.

Comparison of the efficiency of square cascades with an additional product flow and double cascades to concentrate intermediate isotopes

“…The production of isotopes of more than twenty chemical elements is possible using cascades of gas centrifuges [1]. To make the production more efficient, it is important to optimize the separation process, including transient processes [9,10] and separation of non-typical for this method isotopes such as carbon isotopes [11].…”

Design of Gas Diffusion Cascade for Production of Carbon Isotope Using Ethylene as Processing Gas

“…At present, the methods that can be used for 13 C isotope enrichment include gas centrifugation, cryogenic distillation, gas diffusion, laser separation, etc. However, only the cryogenic distillation has realized the industrial production of high abundance 13 C isotope [4][5][6][7][8][9] . In industrial production, the cryogenic distillation method needs a low temperature for operating and long time to reach equilibrium, the power consumption is large [10][11] .…”