Construction and commissioning of a hydrogen cryogenic distillation system for tritium recovery at ICIT Rm. Valcea

Ana, George; Cristescu, I.; Draghia, Mirela; Bucur, Ciprian; Balteanu, Ovidiu; Vijulie, Mihai; Popescu, Gheorghe H.; Costeanu, Claudiu; Sofilca, Nicolae; Ștefan, Iuliana; Daramus, Robert; Niculescu, Alina; Oubraham, Anișoara; Spiridon, Ionut; Vasut, Felicia; Moraru, Carmen; Brad, Sebastian; Pasca, Gheorghe

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2016.03.057

Cited by 22 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…ISS separates hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium. Pressure swing absorption [58], thermal diffusion [59], cryogenic distillation [60], thermal cycling absorption process [61].…”

Section: Component Description Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Meschini,

Ferry,

Delaporte-Mathurin

et al. 2023

Nucl. Fusion

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The limited tritium resources available for the first fusion power plants (FPPs) make fuel self-sufficiency and tritium inventory minimization leading issues in FPP design. This work builds on the model proposed by M. Abdou et al. \cite{abdou2020physics}, which analyzed the fuel cycle of a DEMO-class FPP with a time-dependent system-level model. Here, we use a modified version of their model to analyze the fuel cycle of an ARC-class tokamak and two versions of a STEP-class tokamak. The ARC-class tokamak breeds tritium in a FLiBe liquid immersion blanket (LIB), while the STEP-class tokamak breeds tritium utilizing either a liquid-lithium blanket design or an Encapsulated Breeding Blanket (EBB). A time-dependent system-level model is developed in Matlab Simulink~\textregistered\hspace{.2em} to simulate the evolution of tritium flows and tritium inventories in the fuel cycle. The main goals of this work are to assess tritium self-sufficiency of the ARC- and STEP-class designs and to determine quantitative design requirements that can be used to analyze the adequacy of a proposed fuel cycle system. These design requirements are aimed at achieving a low tritium inventory doubling time ($t_d$) and a low start-up inventory ($I_{\mathrm{startup}}$) while keeping the required tritium breeding ratio (TBR$_r$) as low as possible. We also consider how improvements in fuel cycle technology and plasma operations affect TBR$_r$ and $I_{\mathrm{startup}}$. The model results show that TBR$_r$ for ARC- and STEP-class FPPs should be achievable if the tritium burn efficiency (TBE) reaches 0.5-1\% (TBR$_r <$ 1.2). This assumes significant, but attainable, improvements over current abilities. However, the model results indicate that a FPP must achieve ambitious performance targets, including FPP availability $>$70\%, tritium processing time $<$4~h, and the implementation of direct internal recycling. If future research yields major improvements to achievable TBE, it may be possible to achieve tritium self-sufficiency while operating at lower availability and without implementing DIR.

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“…ISS separates hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium. Pressure swing absorption [58], thermal diffusion [59], cryogenic distillation [60], thermal cycling absorption process [61].…”

Section: Component Description Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Meschini,

Ferry,

Delaporte-Mathurin

et al. 2023

Nucl. Fusion

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“…However, separating the hydrogen isotopes is challenging, as the isotopes share very similar physicochemical characteristics. As a result, energy-intensive processes such as cryogenic distillation and Girdler-sulfide processes are currently used for hydrogen isotope separation. , Transitioning from these traditional approaches, current research is exploring the use of quantum behaviors to facilitate isotope separation, moving away from solely relying on nearly identical physiochemical properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the Dynamic Behaviour of H₂ and D₂ in a Kinetic Quantum Sieving System

Yang,

Rochat,

Krzystyniak

et al. 2024

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Porous organic cages (POCs) are nanoporous materials composed of discrete molecular units that have uniformly distributed functional pores. The intrinsic porosity of these structures can be tuned accurately at the nanoscale by altering the size of the porous molecules, particularly to an optimal size of 3.6 Å, to harness the kinetic quantum sieving effect. Previous research on POCs for isotope separation has predominantly centered on differences in the quantities of adsorbed isotopes. However, nuclear quantum effects also contribute significantly to the dynamics of the sorption process, offering additional opportunities for separating H 2 and D 2 at practical operational temperatures. In this study, our investigations into H 2 and D 2 sorption on POC samples revealed a higher uptake of D 2 compared to that of H 2 under identical conditions. We employed quasi-elastic neutron scattering to study the diffusion processes of D 2 and H 2 in the POCs across various temperature and pressure ranges. Additionally, neutron Compton scattering was utilized to measure the values of the nuclear zero-point energy of individual isotopic species in D 2 and H 2. The results indicate that the diffusion coefficient of D 2 is approximately one-sixth that of H 2 in the POC due to the nuclear quantum effect. Furthermore, the results reveal that at 77 K, D 2 has longer residence times compared to H 2 when moving from pore to pore. Consequently, using the kinetic difference of H 2 and D 2 in a porous POC system enables hydrogen isotope separation using a temperature or pressure swing system at around liquid nitrogen temperatures.

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Tritium removal from water

Perevezentsev¹,

Rozenkevich²

2021

Tritium Technologies for Thermonuclear Fusion Reactors

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Construction and commissioning of a hydrogen cryogenic distillation system for tritium recovery at ICIT Rm. Valcea

Cited by 22 publications

References 1 publication

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Investigation of the Dynamic Behaviour of H₂ and D₂ in a Kinetic Quantum Sieving System

Tritium removal from water

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Construction and commissioning of a hydrogen cryogenic distillation system for tritium recovery at ICIT Rm. Valcea

Cited by 22 publications

References 1 publication

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Investigation of the Dynamic Behaviour of H2 and D2 in a Kinetic Quantum Sieving System

Tritium removal from water

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Product

Resources

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Investigation of the Dynamic Behaviour of H₂ and D₂ in a Kinetic Quantum Sieving System