Speaker
Benedikt J. Peters
(Institute for Technical Physics)
Description
The effect of superpermeability is capable of separating hydrogen and its isotopes out of gas mixtures at low pressures even against a pressure gradient. This process allows strongly enhanced permeation. It relies on metal membranes that are exposed to atomic hydrogen. If the surface inhibits the chemisorption on its surface, the atomic hydrogen can still enter the bulk, but hydrogen recombination on the surface is suppressed. Only few molecules are created that can leave back into the gas phase. The concentration gradient of hydrogen drives the diffusion through the membrane. This is an ideal concept for the implementation of Direct Internal Recycling (DIR) in future fusion machines. DIR is one of the measures aiming to drastically decrease the tritium inventory of a Demonstration fusion power plant which will be necessary due to tritium availability and regulatory issues. In the HERMES facility at KIT superpermeability is investigated. In this publication permeation measurements are shown and interpreted. During the measurements a change of the surface properties was found. These stability issues are discussed in detail. A theoretical model to describe this effect is outlined and benchmarked against the experimental results.
Co-author
Benedikt J. Peters
(Institute for Technical Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany)
