Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.91, No.7, 1289-1295, 2013
Heavy water enrichment by thermal diffusion in the flat-plate frazier scheme with column heights increased at a constant ratio for improved performance
This study investigates heavy water enrichment using the Frazier scheme of flat-plate thermal diffusion columns with the column number adjusted and the column heights varied at a constant ratio with the total sum of column heights fixed. The equations for predicting the best number of columns and the best column-height ratio for maximum separation are derived. Considerable improvement in performance is obtainable if the column-height ratio and/or column number in a modified Frazier scheme are properly assigned, instead of using the conventional Frazier scheme of uniform column height with the same total sum of column heights. (c) 2013 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering