Dynamic experiments and model of hydrogen and deuterium separation with micropore molecular sieve Y at 77 K

The equilibrium and kinetic adsorption data of H-2 and D-2 on the micropore molecular sieve Y were collected at 77 K with the volumetric setup. and adsorption rate constants of deuterium evaluated from kinetic adsorption isotherms are larger than that of hydrogen at low pressure. In order to further study the influence factor of hydrogen isotope separation, the breakthrough curves of H-2 and D-2 mixture on this adsorbent were measured with the single column adsorption apparatus. Effects of different flow rate and pressure on separation efficiency were investigated, and up to 1.52 of the separation factor is obtained at the total gas pressure of 0.4 MPa and flow rate of 129.79 cm(3)/min with the adsorption bed length of 1.0 m. However, the ratios of the adsorbed amount of deuterium over hydrogen are only 1.18 and 1.17 at 0.0139 and 0.0175 MPa. respectively. Based on the difference between equilibrium adsorption and dynamic adsorption in the column, the key factor of separating H-2 and D-2 mixture depends on their dynamic difference. Lastly, a model for the fixed adsorption bed was built to simulate the concentration distribution of H-2 and D-2, and the simulation results agree well with experimental results. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.