• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.1866-1870
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• 2019

Residual salt separation is an essential step in pyroprocessing because its reaction products, as prepared by electrochemical unit processes, contain frozen residual electrolyte species, which are generally composed of alkali-metal chloride salts (e.g., LiCl, KCl). In this study, a simple technique that utilizes high-temperature gas flux as a driving force to melt and push out the residual salt in the reaction products was developed. This technique is simple as it only requires the use of a heating gun in combination with a gas injection system. Consequently, $LiNO_3-ZrO_2$ and $LiCl-ZrO_2$ mixtures were successfully separated by the high-temperature gas injection (separation efficiency > 93%), thereby demonstrating the viability of this simple technique for residual salt separation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2001

Polycarbonate(PC) membranes for oxygen enrichment from air were prepared by the wet phase inversion method. In order to improve oxygen separation performances of the PC membrane, the effect of the added ethanol(nonsolvent) and $CuCl_2$(metal salt) concentration in the casting solution on morphology, oxygen permeability ami $O_2/N_2$ separation factor of the membrane was studied. In addition, tensile strength and elongation at break of the membrane were investigated. An asymmetric membrane with a dense top layer and a porous sublayer was obtained. The thickness of the dense top layer decreased with increasing amount of nonsolvent additive. Compared with pure PC membrane without additive(metal salt), the oxygen permeability and $O_2/N_2$ separation factor of the $PC/CuCl_2$ membrane are significantly improved. The oxygen permeability and $O_2/N_2$ separation factor is $5.25{\times}10^{-9}cm^3(STP){\cdot}cm/cm^2{\cdot}sec{\cdot}cmHg$ and 4.5, respectively. This improvement might be due to good interaction between metal salt and oxygen.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1184-1189
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• 2018

Pyroprocessing uses various molten salts during electrochemical unit processes. Reaction products after the electrochemical processes must contain a significant amount of residual salts to be separated. Vacuum distillation is a common method to separate the residual salts; however, its high operation temperature may cause side reactions. In this study, a simple rotation technique using centrifugal force was suggested to separate the residual salts from the reaction products at relatively low temperature compared to the distillation technique. When a reaction product container with porous wall rotates inside a vessel heated above the melting point of the residual salt, the residual salt in the liquid phase is separated through centrifugal force. It was shown that the $LiNO_3-Al_2O_3$ mixture can be separated by this technique to leave solid $Al_2O_3$ inside the container, with a separation efficiency of 99.4%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.675-682
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• 2013

The sequential separation process, composed of an oxygen sparging process for separating lanthanides and a zone freezing process for separating Group I and II fission products, was evaluated and tested with a surrogate eutectic waste salt generated from pyroprocessing of used metal nuclear fuel. During the oxygen sparging process, the used lanthanide chlorides (Y, Ce, Pr and Nd) were converted into their sat-insoluble precipitates, over 99.5% at $800^{\circ}C$; however, Group I (Cs) and II (Sr) chlorides were not converted but remained within the eutectic salt bed. In the next process, zone freezing, both precipitation of lanthanide precipitates and concentration of Group I/II elements were preformed. The separation efficiency of Cs and Sr increased with a decrease in the crucible moving speed, and there was little effect of crucible moving speed on the separation efficiency of Cs and Sr in the range of a 3.7 - 4.8 mm/hr. When assuming a 60% eutectic salt reuse rate, over 90% separation efficiency of Cs and Sr is possible, but when increasing the eutectic salt reuse rate to 80%, a separation efficiency of about 82 - 86 % for Cs and Sr was estimated.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2355-2364
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• 2018

We evaluated the effect of particle size and associated dynamics on a hydrocyclone separation process in order to understand the movement of the particle trajectories inside the hydrocyclone via numerical analysis, with particles of acid hydrolysis residues discharged in $TiO_2$ production via the sulfate method as a case study. The values obtained from the numerical simulation were successfully compared with those from experimental tests in the literature, allowing a description of the dynamics of the particles, their acting forces, and their relevant properties together with separation efficiency. The results showed that particle motion is jointly controlled by the drag force, the pressure gradient force and the centrifugal force. With increasing particle size, the influence of the drag force is weakened, whereas that of the centrifugal force and pressure gradient is strengthened. Factors including particle density, slurry viscosity, and inlet slurry flow rate also contribute to a clear and useful understanding of particle motion behavior in the hydrocyclone as a method for improving the separation efficiency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.867-874
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• 2015

Separation of cesium chloride (CsCl) and strontium chloride ($SrCl_2$) from the lithium chloride-potassium chloride (LiCl-KCl) salt was studied using a melt crystallization process similar to the reverse vertical Bridgeman growth technique. A ternary $SrCl_2-LiCl-KCl$ salt was explored at similar growth rates (1.8-5 mm/h) and compared with CsCl ternary results to identify similarities. Quaternary experiments were also conducted and compared with the ternary cases to identify trends and possible limitations to the separations process. In the ternary case, as much as 68% of the total salt could be recycled per batch process. In the quaternary experiments, separation of Cs and Sr was nearly identical at the slower rates; however, as the growth rate increased, $SrCl_2$ separated more easily than CsCl. The quaternary results show less separation and rate dependence than in both ternary cases. As an estimated result, only 51% of the total salt could be recycled per batch. Furthermore, two models have been explored to further understand the growth process and separation. A comparison of the experimental and modeling results reveals that the nonmixed model fits reasonably well with the ternary and quaternary data sets. A dimensional analysis was performed and a correlation was identified to semipredict the segregation coefficient.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.137-145
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• 2011

Membrane processes are major breakthrough for the removal of organic pollutants in water remediation. The separations of solutes depend on nature of the membranes and solutes. The separation performance depends on the nature of the solutes (i.e., molecular volume, polarity, and hydrophobicity) for the same membrane. As 4-chlorophenol is of more dipolemoment compared to 2-chlorophenol, the orientation of the molecule enables it pass through the pores of the membrane, which is of negatively charged and thus separation order follows: 2-chlorophenol > 4-chlorophenol. Hydrophobicity factor also supports the order. Addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to chlorophenol solution shows remarkable increase in separation performance of the membrane. The improvement in separation is 1.8 and 1.5 times for 4- and 2- chlorophenol consecutively in case of 0.0082 M SDS (1cmc = 0.0082 M) in the solution. 4-chlorophenol has better attachment tendency with SDS because of its relatively more hydrophobic nature and thus reflects in performance i.e. the separation performance of 4-chlorophenol with SDS through the membrane is better compared to 2-chlorophenol.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.83-83
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• 2017

Electrorefining is a key step in pyroprocessing. The electrorefining process is generally composed of two recovery steps - the deposit of uranium onto a solid cathode and the recovery of the remaining uranium and TRU elements simultaneously by a liquid cadmium cathode. The solid cathode processing is necessary to separate the salt from the cathode since the uranium deposit in a solid cathode contains electrolyte salt. Distillation process was employed for the cathode processing. It is very important to increase the throughput of the salt separation system due to the high uranium content of spent nuclear fuel and high salt fraction of uranium dendrites. In this study, a mesh-covered crucible was investigated for the sat distillation of electrorefiner uranium deposits. A liquid salt separation step and a vacuum distillation step were combined for salt separation. The adhered salt in uranium deposits was efficiently removed in the mesh-covered crucible. The salt distiller was operated simply since repeated cooling - heating step was not necessary for the change of the crucible. The operation time could be reduced by the use of the mesh-covered crucible and the combined operation of the two steps. A method to preserve a vacuum level was proposed by double O-rings during the operation of the distiller with the mesh-covered crucible. After the salt distillation, the salt content was measured and was below 0.1wt% after the salt distillation. The residual salt after the salt distillation can be removed further during melting of uranium metal.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2003

A characterization of the permeation and separation using single salt solution was carried out with charged composite membranes. Various charged composite membranes were fabricated by blending an ionic polymer with a nonionic polymer in different ratios. In this study, sodium alginate, chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) were employed as anionic, cationic and nonionic polymers, respectively. The permeation and separation behaviors of the aqueous salt solutions have been investigated through the charged composite membranes with various charge densities. As the content of the ionic polymer increased in the membrane, the hydrophilicity of the membrane increased, and pure water flux and the solution flux increased correspondingly, indicating that the permeation performance through the membrane is determined mainly by its hydrophilicity. Electrostatic interaction between the charged membrane and ionic solute molecules, that is, Donnan exclusion, was observed to be attributed to salt rejection to a greater extent, and molecular sieve mechanism was effective for the separation of salts under a similar electrostatic circumstance of solutes.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.136-140
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• 1997

Direct membrane separation using nonwoven fabric was applied to saline wastewater treatment by an activated sludge process. A nonwoven fabric module was immersed in an aeration tank. The part of treated was filtered through the module by suction and the rest of that was separated by a settling tank. Various F/M ratios and salt concentrations were applied to investigate stable flux as well as pollutant removal. The pollutant removal efficiencies of nonwoven fabric separation was not affected by F/M ratios and salt concentrations and was higher than that of settling tank separation. The decline in flux was seemed to be caused by the biofilm on nonwoven fabric surface.