Device utilized for separation of hydrogen isotopes from a gas mixture for separation of isotopes contained in a hydrogen isotope mixture

• Main Authors: WIENHOLD; PETER, ALI-KHAN; IMRAN, WAELBROECK; FRANCOIS, DIETZ; KARL-JUERGEN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 22.01.1985
• Edition: 3
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; INORGANIC CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY; NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; SEPARATION; TRANSPORTING

An apparatus utilized for separating hydrogen isotopes from a gas mixture to separate isotopes contained in a hydrogen isotope mixture. The apparatus is provided with two chambers closable by valves and surrounded on all sides by walls and separated from each other by a wall or partition of material differing from palladium though permeable preferably for atomic hydrogen and permeable only to a lesser extent for molecular hydrogen. One of the chambers is connected with a gas supply line as well as a gas discharge line, and the other chamber, provided for collecting isotope mixture coming through the permeable wall, is capable of being evacuated. The remaining walls of the chambers consist of material which is not or is only poorly permeable for hydrogen isotopes. In the chamber connected with the gas supply line and gas discharge line, there is arranged a device for conversion of molecular hydrogen into atomic hydrogen for separation of isotopes contained in the hydrogen isotope mixture as well as, as the case may be, for the compression thereof. Multiple devices or apparatus of the present invention can be electrically operated independently of the walls or partition and can be connected sequentially in a cascade form.