An investigation into the isotopic separation of hydrogen in metals by pressure swing adsorption

在托卡马克设计中，目前最适合商业聚变的反应机制是氘-氚（D-T）反应。然而，氚是不稳定的，衰变的半衰期约为12年。这意味着它需要安全储存，并仔细监控。Culham聚变能源中心（CCFE）运营着一个氚处理设施，并使用铀金属床来储存大约50克的氚。一旦核聚变活动开始，监管要求要求对氚同位素进行严格的分离和隔离。随着新的氚运动的到来以及ITER和DEMO设计的发展，现在是进一步研究可能提高当前氚分离能力的其他路线/材料的理想时机。这个项目是对各种金属材料同位素分离气态氢混合物的能力的研究。一种称为变压吸附/解吸的技术将用于研究分离行为并比较各种潜在候选材料的性能。将确定每种金属的最佳压力和温度性能条件，从而为未来的氢同位素分离技术提出建议。

The current reaction mechanism favoured for commercial fusion in a Tokamak design is the deuterium-tritium (D-T) reaction. However, tritium is unstable and beta decays with a ~12 year half-life. This means that it needs to be stored safely, and carefully monitored. The Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) operates a tritium handling facility and uses a bed of uranium metal to store approximately 50g of tritium. Once, a fusion campaign is underway, the regulatory requirements dictate a strict separation and isolation of the tritium isotope. With the advent of a new tritium campaign and the development of ITER and the DEMO design, now is an ideal time to further investigate other routes/materials that might improve current tritium separation capabilities.This project is an investigation into the ability of various metallic materials to isotopically separate gaseous mixtures of hydrogen. A technique known as pressure swing adsorption/desorption will be used to investigate the separation behaviour and compare the performance of a variety of potential candidate materials. Optimum performance conditions of pressure and temperature will be determined for each metal, so that a proposition can be made for future hydrogen isotopic separation technology.