Separation of stable hydrogen isotopes by packed tower distillation

Document Type : Research paper

Author

Arak University

Abstract

In separation operations using the distillation process, the packed towers are considered for their advantages such as high efficiency. In this study, the separation of deuterium oxide (D2O) (heavy water) and hydrogen oxide (H2O) (ordinary water) was investigated using a packed tower under relative vacuum conditions. In these experiments, heavy water with 10%, 50% and 90% concentrations was used and the separation was examined using Dixon-like packing made of stainless steel. For this purpose, a factorial experiment was designed in which the effects of heavy water concentration, pressure and return flow on the height equivalent of the theoretical tray (HETP) in the tower were investigated. According to the results, the effect of concentration was more than the other two variables and with the optimization, it was concluded that if all variables are at their minimum, the lowest (best) equivalent height will be obtained. The experiments also showed that the pressure parameter in the studied range had no effect on the rate of separation, although its interaction with other factors was evaluated as significant.

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