The Ways to Increase Light Water Detritiation Efficiency by Chemical Isotope Exchange Between Hydrogen and Water in Membrane Contact Devices

The results of studying efficiency of water detritiation by “hydrogen - water” chemical isotope exchange in laboratory-scale facility with membrane contact devices including perfluorosulfonic cationite Nafion-type membranes and platinum hydrophobic catalyst RCTU-3SM are presented. It has been shown that a decrease of detritiation efficiency caused by poisoning membranes with metal ions coming from equipment materials due to their corrosion after long-time operating the facility can be observed. It has been shown as well that modification of a membrane by metal ions followed by its regeneration allows not only to restore but also to increase significantly the efficiency of mass-transfer in membrane contact devices. For example, replacing membranes in contact devices of the laboratory-scale facility resulted in increasing the column separation degree by a factor of more than 7 in comparison to initial value obtained at similar conditions.