Investigation of separation performances of various isotope exchange catalysts for the deuterium-hydrogen system

At the Tritium Laboratory of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (TLK) an experimental facility is running which is designed for the intercomparison of several hydrophobic catalysts for use in an liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) column. The catalysts under comparison are from Russia, Belgium and Romania. The intercomparison is being performed by computing the height equivalent of theoretical plates (HETP) and the mass transfer coefficients for HD transfer from gas to water using the measured values of the composition. The range of HD concentration in hydrogen as carrier gas was 1000 ppm up to 2%. The gas and liquid composition at the bottom and at the top of the column and the condensed vapour composition at the top of the column are measured by mass spectrometry and IR spectrometry.