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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
Argonne research aims to improve nuclear fuel recycling and metal recovery
Servis
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are investigating a used nuclear fuel recycling technology that could lead to a scaled-down and more efficient approach to metal recovery, according to a recent news article from the lab. The research, led by Argonne radiochemist Anna Servis with funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), could have an impact beyond the nuclear fuel cycle and improve other high-value metal processing, such as rare earth recovery, according to Argonne.
The research: Servis’s work is being carried out under ARPA-E’s CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) program. The specific project—Radioisotope Capture Intensification Using Rotating Packed Bed Contactors—started in 2023 and is scheduled to end in January 2026.
Lei Yue, Chao Chen, Jiamao Li, Chengjian Xiao, Xiulong Xia, Guangming Ran, Xiaolong Fu, Jingwei Hou, Yu Gong, Heyi Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 5 | July 2020 | Pages 680-689
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1766274
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Palladium membranes have been used for hydrogen purification for a long time due to their infinite selectivity and excellent permeation performance. However, a coexisting impurity gas, like CO, will inhibit the hydrogen permeation flux that results from the concentration polarization (CP) and competitive adsorption inhibition effects. This work aims to investigate the two inhibition effects separately and quantitatively under different temperatures and pressures. Therefore, permeation experiments of H2 (90%)/N2 (10% to 5%)/CO (0% to 5%) mixtures have been carried out at temperatures ranging from 623 to 698 K and H2 partial pressure drops from 30 to 100 kPa. The permeation of H2/N2 is used to study CP because the competitive adsorption of N2 can be ignored. Then, the further H2 flux reduction of xH2/(1-x-z)N2/zCO permeation relative to that of xH2/(1-x)N2 permeation can be attributed to the competitive adsorption of CO. The experimental results show that the CP effect would be enhanced by increasing temperature and pressure, while the CO competitive adsorption effect would be depressed. Meanwhile, the CO inhibition effect generally becomes smaller when the membrane thickness becomes thicker. Based on the results in this work, operation conditions are suggested to be at a higher temperature and higher pressure for a thicker Pd membrane in consideration of increasing the H2 permeation flux and reducing the CO adsorption effect. The experimental and calculation methods used in this work can provide a new way for investigating the inhibition effect on hydrogen permeation caused by other nonpermeable gases like CO2, Ar, or H2O.