Influence of oxygen and carbon on performance of superpermeable membranes

In order to understand the applicability of superpermeable membranes for tritium recovery from fusion exhaust gas containing impurities, the influence of oxygen and carbon on the performance of Nb and V membranes was examined by laboratory scale experiments. No significant degradation due to oxygen was observed if the membrane temperature was sufficiently high, i.e. above 700 K, and the bulk oxygen concentration was below 1.5 at.%. It was also possible to avoid the influence of carbon deposition by the operation at high temperatures through the conversion of carbon deposited layer into carbide layer.