Palladium hydrogen isotope separation

Evans, J., Harris, I.R., and Ross, D.K., A proposed method of hydrogen isotope separation using palladium alloy membranes, J. Less-Comm. Met., 89, 407, 1983. 

S. Tosti, V. Violante, Numerical approach for a study of the hydrogen isotopes separation by palladium alloy membranes. Fusion Eng. Des. 1998,... 

Glugla, M. et al.. Hydrogen isotope separation by permeation through palladium membranes, J. Nucl. Mater. 355, 47, 2006. 

A potential application of the WGS reaction carried out in an MR is represented by the tritium recovery process from tritiated water from breeder blanket fluids in fusion reactor systems. The hydrogen isotopes separation at low concentration in gaseous mixtures is a typical problem of the fusion reactor fuel cycle. In fact, the tritium produced in the breeder needs a proper extraction process to reach the required purity level. Yoshida et al. (1984) carried out experimental and theoretical studies of a catalytic reduction method which allows tritium recovery from tritiated water with a high conversion value (> 99.99%) at a relatively low temperature, while Hsu and Buxbaum (1986) studied a palladium-catalysed oxidative diffusion... 

Research on separation of hydrogen isotopes is focused on the aspects related to safe operation of nuclear reactors and separation of tritium. Apart from separators based on palladium alloys [142-145], one can find catalytic units with different metallic membranes and various types of integrated systems with catalytic ceramic reactors [146-154]. 

The unusual interaction of hydrogen with palladium-based membrane materials opens up the possibility of oxidative hydrogen pump for tritium recovery from breeder blankets. The feasibility for this potential commercial application hinges on the hot-fusion and cold-fusion technology under development [Saracco and Specchia, 1994]. At first, Yoshida et al. [1983] suggested membrane separation of this radioactive isotope of hydrogen followed by its oxidation to form water. Subsequently, Hsu and Bauxbaum [1986] and Drioli et al. [1990] successfully tested the concept of combining the separation and reaction steps into a membrane reactor operation. 

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