Design Calculations and Parametric Analysis of a Membrane Permeator for Hydrogen-Helium Separation

Abstract

Palladium or palladium alloy-based membrane permeators have been proposed to be used for the separation of hydrogen isotopes from helium in fusion energy plants on account of the very high selectivity for hydrogen exhibited by these membranes. In this work, the preliminary design and parametric analysis of a single stage membrane permeator having different flow patterns have been carried out and the effect of various parameters on the membrane area requirements have been theoretically estimated. The actual membrane permeator, depending upon its configuration may have a flow pattern which is a combination of these idealized flow patterns, thus area requirements can be predicted from the most conservative values obtained from the analyses reported here.