Hydrogen isotopes separation using frontal displacement chromatography with Pd–Al2O3 packed column

Separation or purification of tritium isotopes is one of the key technologies in ITER. A set of frontal displacement chromatography (FDC) device was designed and constructed for hydrogen isotopes separation using palladium loading on/in alumina (Pd–Al₂O₃) as the separation material. The hydrogen isotopes separation experiments were carried out. It was found that deuterium abundance of the product was up to 98.5% and the average separation factor was as high as 64, under the condition of 273 K column temperature and 15 mL(NTP)/min flow rate, for a feed gas of 5%H₂-5%D₂-90%Ar. The deuterium recovery ratio was 42% in this separation test. The results showed that the separation performance of our FDC device was good by using Pd–Al₂O₃ as separation materials, and it suggested considerable potential for the applicability of FDC in hydrogen isotopes separation.