Study on the Process of Hydrogen Normalization for Deuterium Oxide-18O Water by the Liquid-Phase Catalytic Exchange

Liquid-phase catalytic exchange is one of the effective hydrogen isotope separation methods. The conventional electrolysis method to normalize deuterium heavy oxygen has high safety risk and production cost. This work uses liquid-phase catalytic exchange method to carry out a research on the deuterium-removing experiment of deuterium oxide-¹⁸O water. The results show that the total volumetric mass transfer coefficient Kya value of the process of deuterium-removing of deuterium oxide-¹⁸O water firstly becomes larger and then becomes smaller with the increase of temperature,when the reaction temperature is between 30 ℃ and 70 ℃. When the temperature is over 60 ℃, the total volumetric mass transfer coefficient Kya value becomes smaller, the optimal reaction temperature is 60 ℃. The gas-laquid ratio (molar ratio) is between 0.5 and 3.0. With the increase of gas-liquid ratio, the Kya becomes larger,the effect of the process of deuterium-removing of deuterium oxide-¹⁸O water is better. But the excessive gas-liquid ratio can cause gas-liquid entrainment and even lead to flooding, which greatly reduces the reaction efficiency.