Comparative Study of the Model and Optimum Cascades for Multicomponent Isotope Separation

Abstract

The possibility of estimating the minimum total flow in a cascade with concentrations of a target component given in the product and waste flows by means of a model match abundance ratio cascade (MARC) is studied. The parameters required to describe MARC characteristics are the total number of separation stages, the feed flow location, and the M Ã parameter, which is equal to a half-sum of mass numbers of the target and the supporting components. Specific research carried out independently in two scientific labs in China and Russia has demonstrated that the integral parameters of the MARC, optimized by the M Ã parameter, are very close to that of the optimum by the minimum total flow cascade found by means of numerical optimization. The calculation is performed for separation of krypton isotopes when the end component 78 Kr and the intermediate component 83 Kr are considered to be the targets. It paves the way to use the optimized MARC parameters for two purposes: first, for fast and easy evaluation of the real cascade parameters and second, as an initial guess in its further direct numerical optimization, thereby allowing significant savings in computation time.

An Overview of the Application of Harmony Search for Chemical Engineering Optimization

“…Mansourzadeh et al [244] implemented HS in a new multi-component isotope separation cascade code (MISCC-HS) for the calculation of optimal parameters of a centrifuge separation cascade for multi-component systems. Cascade optimization is considered a constrained problem where the optimal design is a configuration with a minimum total flow (or minimum number of gas centrifuges) for a given isotope concentration or a maximum separation capacity for a specific feed flow rate [244,302]. e objective function was defined with respect to the stage cuts and feed location according to a defined minimum concentration in the distillate and a maximum concentration in the bottom.…”

Use of the Q-cascade in calculation and optimization of multi-isotope separation

“…The present paper addresses two problems that are not studied in the recent relevant papers (Song et al, 2010;Borisevich et al, 2011). First is about the region of the key mass where the optimum parameters of a cascade reside.…”

“…The separation task of practical importance in this problem is finding a cascade design with the minimum total flow to produce the specified concentrations of target components in the product and the waste flows. The subject of optimization has been considered both analytically and numerically in many papers (see, for instance de la Garza, 1963;Yamamoto and Kanagawa, 1978;Palkin, 1998;Song et al, 2010), for continuous and step profiles of the working substance flow in cascades.…”

Design of cascade with locally enlarged flow for enrichment of intermediate components of multi-isotope mixtures

“…As is known, the model cascade theory is widely used to study the regularities of the multicomponent selective mass transfer in separation of multicomponent isotope mixtures in cascades (Sulaberidze et al, 2006;De la Garza et al, 1961;De la Garza, 1963;Yamamoto and Kanagawa, 1987;Wu and Fu, 1998;Von Halle, 1987;Agostini, 1994;Zeng et al, 2012;Scopatz, 2013;Wood and Megliorini, 2012;Song et al, 2010). On the base of this theory, it was demonstrated the fundamental possibility of obtaining relatively high concentrations of intermediate components in the additional product flow within the cascade having an "extension" of a working substance flow at its internal stage.…”