Processes and apparatuses for reclamation and purification of tritium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9682860-B2
Application number	US-201514805777-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2015
Priority date	Jul 22, 2015
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

Provided are processes and systems for the reclamation of tritium from a tritiated byproduct material. A liquid organic tritium containing material is subjected to a series of reactions to isolate purified tritium gas that can be used in subsequent tritiation reactions. The processes involve in some aspects a semi-automated system that subjects a byproduct liquid organic tritium containing material to an oxidation to produce tritiated water, a chemical splitting of the tritiated water to form a tritiated gas that is substantially free of oxygen or other contaminants, and the isolation of purified tritium gas from hydrogen containing HT gas. The processes and systems provided substantially reduce both the cost to produce tritium source material for labeling of organic molecules and the amount of byproduct that requires disposal.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process of reclaiming tritium from a tritium containing byproduct stream comprising:
oxidizing a tritium containing organic material for an oxidation time and at an oxidation temperature to produce tritiated water;
splitting said tritiated water to a solid oxygen containing species and a tritiated gas species; and
trapping said tritiated gas species.

2. The process of claim 1 further comprising evaporating and condensing said tritiated water to produce a purified tritiated water, and subjecting said purified tritiated water to said step of splitting.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein said step of oxidizing comprises contacting said tritium containing organic material with purified oxygen.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said oxidation temperature is in excess of 100 degrees Celsius.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein said oxidation temperature is in excess of 300 degrees Celsius.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein said oxidation temperature is from 490 degrees Celsius to 590 degrees Celsius.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein said step of oxidizing is in the presence of a catalyst.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein said oxidation time is 7 to 14 hours.

9. The process of claim 1 wherein said oxidation time is 10 hours.

10. The process of claim 1 wherein said step of splitting comprises contacting said tritiated water with a splitting material suitable to bind oxygen as a solid by-product.

11. The process of claim 10 wherein said splitting material comprises magnesium and phosphorous pentoxide.

12. The process of claim 10 wherein said tritiated gas species comprises raw tritium gas, and wherein said step of trapping said tritiated gas species comprises trapping said raw tritium gas.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein said step of trapping comprises contacting said raw tritium gas with charcoal.

14. The process of claim 1 further comprising separating pure tritium from hydrogen in said tritiated gas species.

15. The process of claim 14 wherein said step of separating comprises:
passing said tritium gas through a molecular sieve column and a second column, said second column comprising activated charcoal and CO 2 .

16. The process of claim 14 wherein separating is by cryogenic gas chromatography.

17. The process of claim 14 further comprising trapping said pure tritium in uranium.

18. A process of producing a tritiated gas from a tritiated liquid water comprising:
contacting tritiated liquid water with a splitting material suitable to bind oxygen as a solid by-product; and
splitting said tritiated water to a solid oxygen containing species and a tritiated gas species, and trapping said tritiated gas species.

19. The process of claim 18 wherein said splitting material comprises magnesium and phosphorous pentoxide.

20. The process of claim 19 wherein said magnesium is layered below said phosphorous pentoxide relative to a tritiated water source such that said magnesium and said phosphorus pentoxide are not intermixed.

21. The process of claim 18 wherein the rate of tritiated liquid water addition to said splitting material is below the rate that will produce MgOH.

22. The process of claim 18 wherein said step of splitting is performed at a splitting temperature of 18 degrees Celsius to 26 degrees Celsius.

23. The process of claim 18 wherein said step of contacting is at an atmospheric pressure of 15 pounds per square inch or less.

24. The process of claim 18 wherein said step of splitting is actively cooled.

25. The process of claim 18 wherein said solid oxygen by-product comprises a metal salt of phosphate or sulfate.

Assignees

• Perkinelmer Health Sci Inc

Inventors

• Maroun Joseph
• Schaeffer Steven T
• Macintosh Iii William D
• De Louise Iii Anthony F

Classifications

• C01B4/00 Primary

  Hydrogen isotopes; Inorganic compounds thereof prepared by isotope exchange, e.g. NH3 + D2 → NH2D + HD · CPC title