Speaker
Karine Liger
(CEA Cadarache)
Description
In the framework of tritium recovery from tritiated water, efficiency of packed bed membrane reactors have been successfully demonstrated. Thanks to protium isotope swamping, tritium can be recovered from tritiated water under the valuable Q2 form (Q = H, D or T) by means of isotope exchange reactions occurring on catalyst surface. The use of permselective Pd-based membrane allows withdrawal of reactions products all along the reactor, and thus limits reverse reaction rate to the benefit of the direct one (shift effect). The reactions kinetics, which are still little known or unknown, are generally assumed to be largely greater than the permeation ones so that thermodynamic equilibriums of isotope exchange reactions are generally assumed. In this paper, the influence of reaction kinetics is evaluated thanks to experimental approach. A dedicated fixed bed reactor filled with catalyst was used to assess the deviation to theoretical thermodynamic equilibriums under different operating conditions corresponding of the range of operating conditions foreseen for the catalytic membrane reactor. Effects of temperature, inlet gas composition and residence time were studied. This led to the simplification of the reaction scheme as for all operating conditions tested, thermodynamic equilibrium could be demonstrated.
Co-authors
Jeremy Mascarade
(CEA Marcoule, Bagnols sur Cèze, France)
Karine Liger
(CEA Cadarache, Saint Paul lez Durance, France)
Michele Troulay
(CEA Cadarache, Saint Paul lez Durance, France)
Xavier Joulia
(Laboratoire de Génie Chimique , INPT, Toulouse, France;Laboratoire de Génie Chimique , CNRS, Toulouse, France)
Xuan-Mi Meyer
(Laboratoire de Génie Chimique , INPT, Toulouse, France;Laboratoire de Génie Chimique , CNRS, Toulouse, France)
