Verification of hydrogen isotope separation/enrichment by pressure swing adsorption process: Successive enrichment of deuterium using SZ-5A column

We have been developing a system of hydrogen isotope separation using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) method, aiming at applying it in the fusion fuel cycle and/or the convenient deuterium production for fusion or/and fission reactors. Particularly, for the issue that tritium inventory in the DT fusion system must be as low as possible, the PSA method will be advantageous because its process inventory is reasonably less than such as in a cryogenic distillation system. The PSA system is generally composed of several adsorption columns cooperating in sequential procedure and alternative combination among adsorption, desorption and another preparative process. A variety of operational modes are made suitable for producing a material needed to be enriched or isolated. In this work, supposing the production of deuterium from natural hydrogen or the recovery of tritium from such as a spent nuclear heavy-water moderator, we carried out an experimental series of PSA process system operating successive separation and enrichment of tracer D2 from a H2–D2 mixture, using a single column packed with SZ-5A at 77.4 K. Availability of the PSA hydrogen isotope separation process is endorsed in experimental results.