Abstract

The efficiency of mass transfer in the separation of hydrogen isotopes by water distillation in the presence of urea as a separating agent has been estimated. Experiments have been performed for vapor–liquid and vapor–aqueous salt solution systems under conditions with independent flows. Two regimes of mass transfer have been considered: the first one when the operating concentration of deuterium in the liquid phase is lower than that in equilibrium with the vapor (x_D < \(x_{{\text{D}}}^{*}\)) and the second one when it is higher than that in equilibrium with the vapor (x_D > \(x_{{\text{D}}}^{*}\)). A substantial difference in the number of theoretical separation stages for these regimes has been found. At x_D > \(x_{{\text{D}}}^{*}\), in the presence of urea as a separating agent, the number of theoretical separation stages is three times lower than that for the vapor–water system. Thus, in the distillation of the hydrogen isotopes of water, urea hinders the transport of deuterium from the liquid phase to the vapor phase, forming nonvolatile complexes with water molecules that contain deuterium.

中文翻译：

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尿素存在下水氢同位素蒸馏中传质动力学的研究

摘要

在存在尿素作为分离剂的情况下，通过水蒸馏分离氢同位素中的传质效率已得到估算。已经在具有独立流量的条件下对气-液和气-盐溶液系统进行了实验。已经考虑了两种传质方式：第一种是液相中氘的操作浓度低于与蒸气平衡时的氘的操作浓度（x _D < \（x _ {{\ text {D}}} ^ {* } \）），第二个高于与蒸气平衡时的第二个（x _D > \（x _ {{\ text {D}}} ^ {*} \））。已经发现这些方案在理论分离阶段的数量上存在实质性差异。在x _D > \（x _ {{\ text {D}}} ^ {*} \），在存在尿素作为分离剂的情况下，理论分离级数比汽水系统的分离级数低三倍。因此，在蒸馏水的氢同位素时，尿素阻碍了氘从液相到气相的传输，与含有氘的水分子形成了不挥发的络合物。