Technology Transfer Department

Application sectors

Problem to solve

HYDREX aims to cover research aspects currently missing in the European landscape, but necessary to support the design of a fusion reactor or a LMFR. Currently, industrially employed technologies and processes exist for gas purification (e.g. for the removal of water vapour and other impurities such as CO2 and H2S from natural gas); such processes and technologies need to be adequately qualified to be used in fusion and fission reactors, under relevant operating conditions.

Description

HYDREX was built with the aim of conducting experimental campaigns on two different types of process. The first one aims to study the removal of hydrogen (simulating tritium) from helium gas, used in fusion reactors as a coolant. In this operating mode, called adsorption, the facility works as a closed loop in which a compressor has the purpose of circulating the helium. The gas contained in the loop is pressurized. A flow of hydrogen is injected into the helium gas, forming a mixture whose composition (H2 concentration) can be adjusted. The mixture enters two containers of oxidizing materials in which the hydrogen is converted into water. The He/H2O mixture then enters a container of molecular sieves that extract the water from the helium. Water is continuously introduced into the helium flow until the saturation of the molecular sieves is reached. In the adsorption mode it is possible to qualify the performance of different oxidizing materials and molecular sieves, varying the operating conditions. In the second type of process, the facility works as an open loop and aims to study the efficiency of the molecular sieve regeneration process, as the operating conditions vary. In this operating mode, called regeneration, which occurs at low pressure, the helium, coming from a cylinder pack, after being heated, enters the molecular sieve container, which is also appropriately heated. The flow of hot helium has the capacity to extract the water retained in the molecular sieves. The He/H2O mixture can then be discharged into the atmosphere or directed to a reducing bed that is based on the use of metal alloys, and which are currently considered the reference technology for transforming tritiated water into tritiated gas; the facility allows the performance of the metal alloy used to be evaluated as the operating conditions vary, and to compare it with other types of reducing materials.

Research group involved