The effect of pressure drop on purity of 32P products with dry distillation process

Phosphorus is one of most produced radioisotopes at Center for Radioisotope and Radiopharmaceutical Technology – BATAN. This product is formed as phosphorus-32 (32P) which is useful for industrial, agricultural, research and health field purposes. The radioisotope 32P can be produced by extraction, dry distillation and precipitation method. In a dry distillation process of 32P, a Sulphur which is after irradiated at Multipurpose Reactor G. A. Siwabessy is heated up until its melting and boiling point is achieved. This research was carried out in a radioisotope and radiopharmaceutical production laboratory, to find out how much pipe openings gas valve the nitrogen ultra-high purity (UHP), the proper airflow pattern, and the pressure drop to produce high purity 32P radioisotope products. For this research, measurement and calculation conducted using valve opening degree variation at 0°, 30°, 45°, 50°, 55°, 60°, 90°, 180° and 270° with gas nitrogen UHP. Based on the results of research, it was found that the right Nitrogen UHP gas pipe openings were 45° to 50°, with the Reynold Number in stage 2 being 240 - 313 which is a laminar flow pattern. Based on calculations, the total pressure drop form all distillation stages for openings gas valve 45° to 50° is 7 - 9 Pascal. The average 32P radioisotope purity obtained before determination and measurement of flow patterns, openings gas valve nitrogen UHP, and proper pressure drop, was 80.4% and after determination and measurement increased to 99.9%.