In situ apparatus and method for providing deuterium oxide or tritium oxide in an industrial apparatus or method

Abstract

An electrochemical hydrogen isotope recycling apparatus for recycling an isotope of hydrogen includes an electrochemical recycling unit, the unit comprising: an anode; a cathode; and an isotope-treated, proton exchange membrane operatively disposed between the anode and cathode, the isotope-treated, proton exchange membrane having heavy water containing the isotope of hydrogen therein, the device configured to receive a feedstream containing the isotope of hydrogen. A process by which high purity hydrogen isotope products are produced using an electrochemical membrane process in which all conventional water containing components are pre-processed using a heavy water containing the isotope of hydrogen.

An industrial apparatus 10 and/or method, such as an electrochemical hydrogen isotope recycling apparatus and/or method, includes an apparatus 49 and/or process by which gaseous D₂ is recovered in a reactor 3 from a gas stream via a reaction in the reactor with another molecule to form a useful chemical compound containing D.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 62 / 450,841, filed Jan. 26, 2017, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.BACKGROUND[0002]The diatomic molecular isotopes of hydrogen, including deuterium and tritium, are useful in a wide variety of commercial and industrial processes to advantageously improve the properties of a wide variety of products including food and nutrition products, agricultural products, semiconductors, fiber optics, optoelectronics, and others. While there is a strong desire to utilize these isotopes in numerous products and processes, such use has generally been hindered by the high cost associated with the relative scarcity.[0003]Various processes and equipment are used to recycle and reclaim hydrogen, including electrochemical processes and equipment, such as electrochemical pumping using electrochemical pumps. However, these processes and equipment are not generally effect...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]In another embodiment, an apparatus and method that are configured to prevent the loss of high value D2 and/or T2 in a process waste stream is disclosed. This is very advantageous because deuterium and/or tritium are very expensive, regardless of their phase, and prevention of their loss makes their use economically possible in a number of industrial applications.

[0015]In another embodiment, an apparatus and method that relate to the processing of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium is disclosed. Rather than recovering and purifying D2 and/or T2 while in gaseous form, this embodiment is an apparatus...

Problems solved by technology

While there is a strong desire to utilize these isotopes in numerous products and processes, such use has generally been hindered by the high cost associated with the relative scarcity.

However, these processes and equipment are not generally effective to recycle and reclaim isotopes of hydrogen in high purity.

In some equipment ...

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