Method for heavy-water recovery from a natural water feed stream and from a non-electrolytic hydrogen stream using a combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange system

摘要

A method is disclosed for heavy-water extraction from non-electrolytic hydrogen streams using a modified Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange-Heavy Water Process (CECE-HWP). The method comprises contacting feed water in a catalyst column with hydrogen gas originating partly from such non-electrolytic hydrogen stream and partly from an electrolytic hydrogen stream so as to enrich the feed water with deuterium extracted from both the non- electrolytic and electrolytic hydrogen gas, and passing the deuterium enriched water to an electrolyser wherein the electrolytic hydrogen gas is generated and then fed through the catalyst column.