Adsorption characteristics of water vapor on honeycomb adsorbents

Abstract Recovery of tritium released into working areas in nuclear fusion plants is a key issue of safety. A large volume of air from tritium fuel cycle or vacuum vessel should be processed by air cleanup system (ACS). In ACS, tritium gas is oxidized by catalysts, and then tritiated water vapor is collected by adsorbents. This method can remove tritium effectively, whereas high throughput of air causes high-pressure drop in catalyst and adsorbent beds. In this study, the applicability of honeycomb-type adsorbents, which offers a useful advantage in terms of their low-pressure drop, to ACS was examined, in comparison with conventional pebble-type adsorbent. Honeycomb-type adsorbent causes far less pressure drop than pebble-type adsorbent beds. Adsorption capacity of water vapor on a honeycomb-type adsorbent is slightly lower than that on a pebble-type adsorbent, while adsorption rate of water vapor on honeycomb-type adsorbent is much higher than that of pebble-type adsorbent.