Experimental and analytical studies on chromatography of hydrogen-deuterium mixtures with vanadium particle fixed-bed.

The exchange chromatography of hydrogen and deuterium in a vanadium particle bed was experimentally and analytically studied for the isotope separation with small scale facilities. In the analysis, diffusion across a fluid film and in a solid phase, an apparent exchange reaction on surfaces including effects of impurities, and axial dispersion in a fixed-bed are taken into consideration. A simplified calculation method using a numerical technique of the inverse Laplace transform was also applied for the analysis of the chromatography with a pulse or step change of a deuterium concentration at the inlet of the bed. From the experiment, it was found that the apparent exchange reaction rate on surfaces controls the overall mass transfer and the tortuosity factor in the bed is about 2, The numerical effluent curves calculated by using the mass transfer coefficient and the tortuosity factor obtained from the first and second moments could be well fitted to the experimental results.