Highly porous palladium bulks were prepared by spark plasma sintering from Pd powder, with tungsten carbide as the mold material. It was found that the surface purity increased but the porosity and BET surface area decreased with the increase in sintering temperature. Due to the formation of a porous microstructure with well-developed necks and higher purity of Pd on the surface, the bulk sintered at 700 degrees C for 5 min was applied to the displacement chromatographic processes (DCP) between saturated deuteride of the bulk and input hydrogen gas with various constant flow rates at 20 degrees C. The experimental results showed that the exchange rates in the DCPs are very high. in addition, high initial deuterium abundances can be obtained when hydrogen gas with a constant flow rate ranged from 2.00 to 9.00 cm/s is adopted. The initial deuterium abundances of the DCP outflow dropped significantly when the flow rate rose up to 14.50 cm/s. (C) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.