Experiments and modeling of ion exchange resins for nuclear power plants

Resins are used in nuclear power plants for water ultra-purification. Two approaches are considered in this work: column experiments and simulations in order to simulate their behaviors. A software called OPTIPUR was developed, tested and used. The approach simulates the one-dimensional reactive transport in porous medium with convective-dispersive transport between particles and diffusive transport within the boundary layer around the particles. The transfer limitation in the boundary layer is characterized by the mass transfer coefficient (MTC). The influences on MTC of two parameters were measured experimentally. The variation of the inlet concentration in the range studied does not influence the MTC; on the contrary of the superficial velocity which influences. This is consistent with results obtained using the correlation of Dwivedi & Upadhyay. With the MTC, knowing the number of exchange site and the relative affinity, OPTIPUR can simulate the column outlet concentration versus time. Then, the duration of use of resins can be predicted in conditions of a binary exchange