Novel, High-performance Sorbents for Chlorine Capture (13b)

Molten salt reactors offer lower operating pressure, higher operating temperature, and closed fuel cycle compared to other types of nuclear reactors. The decomposed products include chlorine gas and metal chlorides. Many sorbents have been shown to be viable to capture these by-products, however, they oftentimes consist of expensive precious metals, demonstrate low performance, and/or is non-reusable (i.e., disposal). A potential mitigation strategy to reduce waste production is to recycle the decomposed products for reusage down-stream. This illustrates the need to develop a regenerative, scrubbing technology that can efficiently capture chlorine and metal chlorides from the nuclear off-gas stream. This small business will develop a low-cost, high performance, reusable and remotely handled turnkey absorber system to efficiently capture chlorine and metal chlorides from the off-gas stream of a molten chloride reactor. The key innovation is Smart Sorbent technology platform developed by this small business with high surface area that is engineered with surface functionalities which enables selective chlorine capture from nuclear waste and regeneration of the sorbent. The proposed approach will result in a regenerative sorbent system with enhanced capabilities, reduced operational cost, and enhanced safety compared to that of single-use technologies. During the Phase I program, this small business will demonstrate: (a) sorbent production on tens-of-gram process scale, (b) selective chlorine capture under off-gas conditions, and (c) efficient sorbent regeneration capability and durability. At the end of Phase I program, this small business will perform a comprehensive techno-economic analysis that will be used to guide the Phase II program transition. The Phase II program will focus on demonstrating material production and qualification on hundreds-of-gram process scale by working with identified lead industry partners to evaluate the performance and the commercial viability of the sorbent technology and to develop robust strategies for technology transition into government and commercial market. The proposed approach will demonstrate an economically viable process to produce high performance, regenerative sorbent material to capture, store, and recycle chlorine and chloride compounds from nuclear reactors. This in turn, will ensure safe and continuous operation of nuclear reactors.