Instrumentation and Control for Tritium-Compatible Hydrogen Generator

Abstract

Hydrogen generators that use a proton exchange membrane (PEM) cell stack for water electrolysis have various applications, one of them being combined electrolysis catalytic exchange installations. This process separates a stream of tritiated water into detritiated water and a stream of tritium-enriched hydrogen. The stream of tritium-enriched hydrogen then can be used in tritium recovery processes. The development of hydrogen generators capable of processing tritiated water still arouses increased interest due to their low commercial availability. This paper presents the construction of a hydrogen generator compatible with tritium in a two-PEM cell stack configuration in terms of instrumentation and control as well as the active safety measures implemented.

Keywords:

• Tritium
• electrolysis
• instrumentation, control

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was possible with financial support by Ministerul Cercetării, Inovării şi Digitalizării by allocation for National Interest Facility PESTD and in the framework of project number [PN 19 11 01 04].