Full Title Development of a Catalytic Membrane Reactor to Remove and Purify Tritium from Spent D-T Fuel Mix in a Fusion Reactor Tritium Loop Tech Area / Field

• FUS-HSF: Fusion / Hybrid Systems and Fuel Cycle

Brief Description of Technology
A production technology for membrane catalysts based on Pd-alloys of specific composition which allow to perform methane vapor conversion and hydrogen oxide conversion with water vapor has been developed.

The availability of the above-mentioned technology made it possible for the INKhS, in association with the A.A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy of the RAS, to develop flowing reactors both with tubular and flat membrane catalysts for hydrogen-protium extraction from gas hydrocarbon-bearing mixtures. Palladium tubular membrane reactors rank above flat membrane reactors in efficiency, simplicity of technology and design and reliable operation.

Since 1993, the RFNC-VNIIEF has been involved in the development of an experimental closed loop for the dynamic modeling of fusion reactor vacuum-tritium systems with a total tritium inventory of up to 250 g in operation. At present, processing facilities have been developed and tested that allow to test some of the apparatus and concepts of the ITER tritium loop. In particular, model samples of diffusion permeators, made of tubular membranes of palladium-silver alloy (B-1 alloy), are being tested.

Under the ITER program at the Los-Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and at the Nuclear Research Center in Karlsruhe (FZK), palladium membrane reactors providing facilities with a number of tubes made from B-1 alloy are being developed. In the schemes employed at LANL and FZK to remove tritium from the ITER spent fuel mix, a catalyst (nickel on aluminum oxide) is used for the preliminary conversion of methane:

CQ₄ + Q₂O —> CO + 3Q₂, where Q = H, D or T.

We believe that the use of flowing reactors with flat membrane catalysts based on Pd-alloys, developed at the INKhS and the IMET of the RAS for the recovery and clean-up of tritium from depleted D-T fuel mix in the ITER tritium loop will become more and more preferable.

The objective of the proposed research is the development and calculated substantiation of the optimal layout and the flow diagram of a technology scheme for a facility based on a membrane catalytic reactor that will allow to remove hydrogen isotopes from a used gas mix (including isotope-substituted hydrocarbons) from the ITER fuel loop. The second goal is the experimental verification of the operability and determining service characteristics of a laboratory sample of the model apparatus (with smaller efficiency) for hydrogen-isotope separation, based on the Pd-filtering element FEL-50.

Legal Aspects
Palladium alloys of specific composition and membrane catalysts from this alloy, as well as facilities based on Pd-membrane reactors have been industrially tested. They are protected by the following US, German and Russian patents and by publications of the INKhS of the RAS and the IMET of the RAS:
patent of the USA No 3779711, priority of December 18, 1973;
patent of the USA No 3849076, priority of November 19, 1974;
patent of the USA No 4014657, priority of March 29, 1977;
patent of the USA No 4489039, priority of February 15, 1985;
patent of Germany No 3026954, priority of August 16, 1985;
author's certificate of the USSR No 1643450, priority of December 22, 1990; USSR Invention Bull., 1991, No 5.

V.M. Gryaznov, Yu.V. Serov, et. al. Problems of Nuclear Science and Technologies, Series. Nuclear Engineering and Technology. 1980, issue 2, pp. 60 - 66 "Conversion pipe for the vapor conversion of hydrocarbon gases with hydrogen recovery from the reaction area and with helium heat-carrier heating";

Yu.M. Serov et. al. Journal of Analytic Chemistry, vol. 45, issue 9, pp. 1853 - 1855, 1990. "Hydrogen recovery from the first loop of water reactors";

Yu. M. Serov, V.M. Gryaznol, et. al. Institutes' transactions. Chemistry and chemical technology, vol. 24, p. 936, 1981. “Application of membrane catalysts for the hydrogen removal from mixtures with CO and CO₂”.

Special Facilities in Use and Their Specifications
None in this research.

Scientific Papers
Mischenko. In: Metals and alloys as membrane catalysts, M. "Nauka", 1981, pp. 56 - 74. "The impact of composition, thermal treatment and another activation techniques on hydrogen permeability of palladium alloys".

Mischenko. In: Membrane catalysts permeable for hydrogen and oxygen. M. "Nauka", 1985, pp. 22-32. “Hydrogen transport through Pd-alloy-membranes”.

Saksagansky, A.I. Vedeneev, E.L. Koira. In: Book of Extended Summaries. Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications, 28 May - 3 June 1995, Belgirate, Lake Maggiore, Italy, 1995, Summary A - 49. "An Experimental Vacuum - Tritium Loop for the Dynamic Modeling of the Fuel Cycle in the Tokamak Reactor".

Saksagansky, A.I. Vedeneev, E.L. Koira, V.N. Lobanov, S.A. Pimanikhin, B.N. Tenyaev, In: Book of Abstracts. 19-th Symposium on Fusion Technology, September 16 - 20, 1996, Lisbon, 1996, p. 359. "Experimental Closed Loop for Dynamic Simulation of ITER Vacuum - Tritium Complex. Main Parameters and Status of Development".

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