Gas Chromatography and Thermal Cycling Absorption Techniques for Hydrogen Isotopes Separation in Water Detritiation Systems

Abstract

This work introduces state-of-the-art water detritiation processes and discusses the main technologies and materials adopted. Focus is given to the gas chromatography (GC) and the thermal cycling absorption process (TCAP), which are studied as potential back-end technologies for tritium recovery through a water detritiation system designed for a small-scale unit. GC and the TCAP are evaluated critically in order to establish their applicability for the final purification of the DT stream recovered at the bottom of the cryo-distillation column of a water detritiation unit. Both solutions (GC and the TCAP with an inverse column) exhibit safe and feasible operation modes and are characterised by a good technological level; furthermore, both of these processes meet the main design specifications required by the proposed application. However, the use of GC is preferred, since this system can operate with modest temperature cycling and producing streams (D2 and T2) of better purity.