Experimental validation of bed depth service time model using vapor adsorption bed for coolant purification system of fusion research

A breeding blanket system breeds tritium for fuel, and the system heat is removed by a helium cooling system in the fusion reactor. A Coolant Purification System (CPS) is an ancillary system that removes tritium and impurities from the coolant so that the levels of tritium and impurity in a helium cooling system remain within design requirements. The CPS consists of an oxidation bed that oxidizes Q2 (H, D, T) to Q2O, respectively, an Ambient Molecular Sieve Bed (AMSB) that adsorbs oxidized Q2O, a reduction bed that reduces Q2O back to Q2, and a heated getter bed that removes other impurities. An AMSB filled with zeolite has excellent vapor adsorption at room temperature, and is used semi-permanently by repeating adsorption and regeneration through a pressure–temperature swing adsorption process. In this work, an experimental study on the vapor adsorption and desorption of AMSB was conducted with research apparatus for vapor adsorption and desorption. The purpose of this study was to identify the adsorption and desorption characteristics of an AMSB with various geometries and operation conditions of vapor concentration and flow rate, and to verify its performance. The experimental results were analyzed by applying the bed depth service time model. Through such analysis, real-scale operating conditions could be predicted from the scaled-down test results, and this could be used for code validation of CPS in the future.