Inorganic Membranes for Continuous High Efficiency Kr/Xe Separation

Nuclear fission has been demonstrated over many decades to be a reliable and economical source of low carbon energy production. Compared with alternative green energy sources (wind, solar, hydro, etc.), it offers advantages such as very high energy production intensity (small footprint), continuous baseload supply, and proven long-term reliability at far more modest resource inputs for construction and maintenance. A key challenge faced by the industry, however, has been the dangerous accumulation of spent fuel throughout the US and around the world. Interestingly, practical fission fuel reprocessing has been technically demonstrated, although one of the key challenges remains the cleanup of the fission fuel reprocessing vent gas, specifically the development of a cost effective industrially scalable Kr-Xe separation/recovery technologies for radioactive Kr management. A zeolite membrane-base process is proposed for continuous low-cost low energy intensity Kr-Xe separation and recovery. MPT has developed several breakthrough technologies that overcome the hurdles to zeolite membrane deployment in this space. We have demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating high performance ultrathin inorganic asymmetric membranes on high- performance low-cost ceramic substrates and packaging this product into a high packing density housing configuration. Although deployment in the proposed membrane technology in nuclear fuel reprocessing may be many years away and awaits public and governmental acceptance, this technical approach has immediate ôdual-useö applications in Kr-Xe separation in commercial cryogenic air separation for O2 production. Significant commercial opportunities for these gases in lighting, lasers, medical diagnostics, NMR spectroscopy, etc. have already been demonstrated. A cost effective and low energy consumption alternative to cryogenic distillation would represent a breakthrough in the production of these gases and would drive market development in these industries. Media and Process Technology Inc (MPT), a US-based ceramic membrane manufacturer, has been developing in parallel these advanced inorganic gas separation membranes and the required underlying high performance supports. This combined effort has resulted in a breakthrough in commercial viability of these novel membranes in not only fission fuel reprocessing but an enormous range of industrially important gas and vapor separations. In this project, the focus is (i) to scale up zeolite membrane technology based upon MPTĺs recent breakthroughs in ultrathin layer deposition and high surface area full ceramic package design and (ii) to conduct challenge and proof-of-concept testing at conditions consistent with the separation and recovery of Kr and Xe from fission fuel reprocessing vent gas. Process design, optimization, and TEA development will be conducted, and the results will inform the program technical approach in the Phase II fabrication scaleup, field demonstration testing, and commercialization. Advanced inorganic membranes as asymmetric ultrathin films on high performance high packing density full ceramic supports can be used in a wide range of industrial H2 separation and purification applications. This project focusses on the use of this membrane technology in the fission fuel reprocessing, but this new membrane technology has far-reaching implications for the production of clean zero-carbon power and chemicals.