(423e) Development of New Adsorption Cycles for Xenon Concentration From Air

The primary scope of this effort is to provide mathematical modeling support to the National Security Directorate of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the development of new adsorption cycles for xenon concentration from air. The ultimate goal of this project is to work with the team at the PNNL to design a new version of the Automated Radioxenon Sampler-Analyzer (ARSA) that is significantly smaller and consumes much less power than the current version of ARSA. Part of this goal will be accomplished through the use of DAPS, the dynamic adsorption process simulator developed by Professor Ritter and his team over the past decade. This presentation will present recent results of a proposed design consisting of a rapid cycle PSA system operating at room temperature, followed by a conventional cycle hybrid PSA/TSA system. The results indicate that the proposed system is able process about 500 SLPM of a water vapor-free, CO2-free nitrogen stream containing 86 ppb of Xe and to enrich it to more than 50 vol% within a 3 h period. A description of both systems will be given. For the first system, the presentation will discuss the effect of the mass transfer coefficient of Xe and N2, and design variables such as bed volume, heavy product recycle, and different adsorbents on its performance. Similarly, the effect of bed volume and regeneration temperature on the performance of the second unit will also be presented.