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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2007

Active-Adaptive Control of Inlet Separation Using Supersonic Microjets

Flow separation in internal and external flows generally results in a significant degradation in aircraft performance. For internal flows, such as inlets and transmission ducts in aircraft propulsion systems, separation is undesirable as it reduces the overall system performance. The aim of this research has been to understand the nature of separation and more importantly, to explore techniques to actively control it. In this research, we extended our investigation of active separation control (under a previous NASA grant) where we explored the use of microjets for the control of boundary layer separation. The geometry used for the initial study was a simple diverging Stratford ramp, equipped with arrays of microjets. These early results clearly show that the activation of microjets eliminated flow separation. Furthermore, the velocity-field measurements, using PIV, also demonstrate that the gain in momentum due to the elimination of separation is at least an order of magnitude larger (two orders of magnitude larger in most cases) than the momentum injected by the microjets and is accomplished with very little mass flow through the microjets. Based on our initial promising results this research was continued under the present grant, using a more flexible model. This model allows for the magnitude and extent of separation as well as the microjet parameters to be independently varied. The results, using this model were even more encouraging and demonstrated that microjet control completely eliminated significant regions of flow separation over a wide range of conditions with almost negligible mass flow. Detailed studies of the flowfield and its response to microjets were further examined using 3-component PIV and unsteady pressure measurements, among others. As the results presented this report will show, microjets were successfully used to control the separation of a much larger extent and magnitude than demonstrated in our earlier experiments. In fact, using the appropriate combination of control parameters (microjet, location, angle and pressure) separation was completely eliminated for the largest separated flowfield we could generate with the present model. Separation control also resulted in a significant reduction in the unsteady pressures in the flow where the unsteady pressure field was found to be directly responsive to the state of the flow above the surface. Hence, our study indicates that the unsteady pressure signature is a strong candidate for a flow state sensor , which can be used to estimate the location, magnitude and other properties of the separated flowfield. Once better understood and properly utilized, this behavior can be of significant practical importance for developing and implementing online control.

Alvi, Farrukh S.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Methodology for assessing the maximum potential impact of separations opportunities in industrial processes

Separation technologies currently used in U.S. manufacturing industries are estimated to account for more than 20% of plant energy consumption. However, accurately determining the impact of new separation technology solutions can sometimes be difficult, especially when evaluating a slate of new candidate separation technologies, each of which has its own separation performance, energy demand, and capital cost. In these cases, a typical approach is to assess each new separation technology by collecting performance and cost information and then using that information to develop a techno-economic analysis to identify overall benefits. While this approach is thorough, it can be time consuming and can hinder reaching a critical understanding of the potential of a given separation challenge, especially when there is no known solution. To address these issues, we developed an assessment methodology, using industrial screening processes, that can be used to better understand the potential impacts of addressing a given separation challenge. This paper presents an overview of our separation challenge stream assessment methodology. The methodology involves defining an “ideal” separator and deriving the associated minimum separation energy. The “ideal” separator represents the most optimistic outlook of a given opportunity so the maximum impact from existing and not-yet-developed solutions can be assessed. Using established biorefinery models, we applied the methodology to 10 different separation challenge streams from two different biomass conversion platforms to identify the type of information that can be obtained. Three of the ten challenge streams assessed had maximum possible cost savings predictions >20%, and associated reductions in process energy carbon intensity ranging from 0 to 54%. Two streams had cost and energy savings potential that were < 5%. Some of the opportunity drivers from the various assessments include higher product yields, reduction or elimination of downstream equipment, new co-products, and cost savings associated with raw materials and energy consumption. The information from these assessments can help guide the selection or development of new separation technology solutions based on the various potential factors that drive the projected benefits.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2021

Separation at Crossing Waypoints Under Wind Uncertainty in Urban Air Mobility

To enable high-density operations in major metropolitan areas, urban air mobility networks are anticipated to have air traffic management with higher levels of autonomy. To ensure that this type of autonomy is feasible, one of the critical steps from a safety and efficiency perspective is understanding various factors that affect the spatial separation between airborne flights and ensure that these factors can be managed. In terms of separation assurance and scheduling, an important real-world concern is that future states of aircraft cannot be perfectly predicted. The focus of this research paper is to understand how these prediction errors affect separation and scheduling services and to explore mitigation strategies to handle these errors. In this research, we have simulated these types of uncertainty by adding wind-prediction errors to trajectory predictions for separation. With these wind-prediction errors, we decompose the problem into two separate questions. First, using both simulation and analytical methods, we look at conflict-detection-only scenarios to understand how the wind errors affect required minimum temporal separation between crossing flights to ensure a specific spatial separation. Next, we study how trajectory errors effect conflict resolution, and we explore different combinations of scheduling and separation assurance to mitigate the effects of uncertainty between crossing flights. The conflict resolution algorithm aims to minimize necessary temporal separation between crossing flights under uncertainty, still ensuring safety-critical spatial separation. In summary, this research suggests that the required minimum temporal separation at a crossing waypoint is dependent on factors such as inbound crossing angle, the relative angle between wind direction and bearing of each route, wind magnitude, wind magnitude uncertainty, nominal cruise airspeed of aircraft, and look-ahead time of the conflict detection algorithm. This research also suggests that different combinations of scheduling and separation have different qualitative results. Using a combination of strategic, flow-based scheduling, tactical scheduling at crossings, speed control near crossing points, and separation management leads to a system that is insensitive to trajectory prediction errors with high throughput and flexibility for aircraft away from shared resources.

urban air mobility↗
NASA NTRS2021

Separation at Crossing Waypoints Under Wind Uncertainty in Urban Air Mobility

To enable high-density operations in major metropolitan areas, urban air mobility networks are anticipated to have air traffic management with higher levels of autonomy. To ensure that this type of autonomy is feasible, one of the critical steps from a safety and efficiency perspective is understanding various factors that affect the spatial separation between airborne flights and ensure that these factors can be managed. In terms of separation assurance and scheduling, an important real-world concern is that future states of aircraft cannot be perfectly predicted. The focus of this research paper is to understand how these prediction errors affect separation and scheduling services and to explore mitigation strategies to handle these errors. In this research, we have simulated these types of uncertainty by adding wind-prediction errors to trajectory predictions for separation. With these wind-prediction errors, we decompose the problem into two separate questions. First, using both simulation and analytical methods, we look at conflict-detection-only scenarios to understand how the wind errors affect required minimum temporal separation between crossing flights to ensure a specific spatial separation. Next, we study how trajectory errors effect conflict resolution, and we explore different combinations of scheduling and separation assurance to mitigate the effects of uncertainty between crossing flights. The conflict resolution algorithm aims to minimize necessary temporal separation between crossing flights under uncertainty, still ensuring safety-critical spatial separation. In summary, this research suggests that the required minimum temporal separation at a crossing waypoint is dependent on factors such as inbound crossing angle, the relative angle between wind direction and bearing of each route, wind magnitude, wind magnitude uncertainty, nominal cruise airspeed of aircraft, and look-ahead time of the conflict detection algorithm. This research also suggests that different combinations of scheduling and separation have different qualitative results. Using a combination of strategic, flow-based scheduling, tactical scheduling at crossings, speed control near crossing points, and separation management leads to a system that is insensitive to trajectory prediction errors with high throughput and flexibility for aircraft away from shared resources.

urban air mobility↗
DOE OSTI2016

Enhanced separation of rare earth elements

Industrial rare earth separation processes utilize PC88A, a phosphonic acid ligand, for solvent extraction separations. The separation factors of the individual rare earths, the equipment requirements, and chemical usage for these flowsheets are well characterized. Alternative ligands such as Cyanex® 572 and the associated flowsheets are being investigated at the pilot scale level to determine if significant improvements to the current separation processes can be realized. These improvements are identified as higher separation factors, reduced stage requirements, or reduced chemical consumption. Any of these improvements can significantly affect the costs associated with these challenging separation proccesses. A mid/heavy rare earth element (REE) separations flowsheet was developed and tested for each ligand in a 30 stage mixer-settler circuit to compare the separation performance of PC88A and Cyanex® 572. The ligand-metal complex strength of Cyanex® 572 provides efficient extraction of REE while significantly reducing the strip acid requirements. Reductions in chemical consumption have a significant impact on process economics for REE separations. Partitioning results summarized Table 1 indicate that Cyanex® 572 offers the same separation performance as PC88A while reducing acid consumption by 30% in the strip section for the mid/heavy REE separation. Flowsheet Effluent Compositions PC88A Cyanex® 572 Raffinate Mid REE Heavy REE 99.40% 0.60% 99.40% 0.60% Rich Mid REE Heavy REE 2.20% 97.80% 0.80% 99.20% Liquor Strip Acid Required 3.4 M 2.3 M Table 1 – Flowsheet results comparing separation performance of PC88A and Cyanex® 572 for a mid/heavy REE separation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

Sulfur Hexafluoride Treatment of Used Nuclear Fuel to Enhance Separations

Reactive Gas Recycling (RGR) technology development has been initiated at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), with a stretch-goal to develop a fully dry recycling technology for Used Nuclear Fuel (UNF). This approach is attractive due to the potential of targeted gas-phase treatment steps to reduce footprint and secondary waste volumes associated with separations relying primarily on traditional technologies, so long as the fluorinators employed in the reaction are recycled for use in the reactors or are optimized for conversion of fluorinator reactant. The developed fluorination via SF 6 , similar to the case for other fluorinators such as NF 3 , can be used to address multiple fuel forms and downstream cycles including continued processing for LWR via fluorination or incorporation into a aqueous process (e.g. modified FLUOREX) or for subsequent pyro treatment to be used in advanced gas reactor designs such metal- or gas-cooled reactors. This report details the most recent experimental results on the reaction of SF 6 with various fission product surrogate materials in the form of oxides and metals, including uranium oxides using a high-temperature DTA apparatus capable of temperatures in excess of 1000°C. The experimental results indicate that the majority of the fission products form stable solid fluorides and sulfides, while a subset of the fission products form volatile fluorides such as molybdenum fluoride and niobium fluoride, as predicted thermodynamically. Additional kinetic analysis has been performed on additional fission products. A key result is the verification that SF 6 requires high temperatures for direct fluorination and subsequent volatilization of uranium oxides to UF 6 , and thus is well positioned as a head-end treatment for other separations technologies, such as the volatilization of uranium oxide by NF 3 as reported by colleagues at PNNL, advanced pyrochemical separations or traditional full recycle approaches. Based on current results of the research at SRNL on SF 6 fluoride volatility for UNF separations, SF 6 treatment renders all anticipated volatile fluorides studied to be volatile, and all non-volatile fluorides studied to be non-volatile, with the notable exception of uranium oxides. This offers an excellent opportunity to use this as a head-end separations treatment process because: 1. SF 6 can be used to remove volatile fluorides from a UNF matrix while leaving behind uranium oxides. Therefore an agent such as NF 3 should be able to very cleanly separate a pure UF 6 stream, leaving compounds in the bottoms such as PuF 4 , SrF 2 and CsF after the UNF matrix has been pre-treated with SF 6 . 2. Due to the fact that the uranium oxide is not separated in the volatilization step upon direct contact with SF 6 at moderately high temperatures (≤ 1000°C), this fluoride approach may be well-suited for head-end processing for Gen IV reactor designs where the LWR is treated as a fuel stock, and it is not desired to separate the uranium from plutonium, but it is desired to separate many of the volatile fission products. 3. It is likely that removal of the volatile fission products from the uranium oxide should simplify both traditional and next generation pyroprocessing techniques. 4. SF 6 treatment to remove volatile fission products, with or without treatment with additional fluorinators, could be used to simplify the separations of traditional aqueous processes in similar fashion to the FLUOREX process. Further research should be conducted to determine the separations efficiency of a combined SF 6 /NF 3 separations approach which could be used as a stand-alone separations technology or a head-end process.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1988

Unsteady three-dimensional flow separation

A concise mathematical framework is constructed to study the topology of steady 3-D separated flows of an incompressible, or a compressible viscous fluid. Flow separation is defined by the existence of a stream surface which intersects with the body surface. The line of separation is itself a skin-friction line. Flow separation is classified as being either regular or singular, depending respectively on whether the line of separation contains only a finite number of singular points or is a singular line of the skin-friction field. The special cases of 2-D and axisymmetric flow separation are shown to be of singular type. In regular separation it is shown that a line of separation originates from a saddle point of separation of the skin-friction field and ends at nodal points of separation. Unsteady flow separation is defined relative to a coordinate system fixed to the body surface. It is shown that separation of an unsteady 3-D incompressible viscous flow at time t, when viewed from such a frame of reference, is topologically the same as that of the fictitious steady flow obtained by freezing the unsteady flow at the instant t. Examples are given showing effects of various forms of flow unsteadiness on flow separation.

Hui, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Separator Materials Used in Secondary Alkaline Batteries Characterized and Evaluated

Nickel-cadmium (Ni/Cd) and nickel-hydrogen (Ni/H2) secondary alkaline batteries are vital to aerospace applications. Battery performance and cycle life are significantly affected by the type of separators used in those batteries. A team from NASA Lewis Research Center's Electrochemical Technology Branch developed standardized testing procedures to characterize and evaluate new and existing separator materials to improve performance and cycle life of secondary alkaline batteries. Battery separators must function as good electronic insulators and as efficient electrolyte reservoirs. At present, new types of organic and inorganic separator materials are being developed for Ni/Cd and Ni/H2 batteries. The separator material previously used in the NASA standard Ni/Cd was Pellon 2505, a 100-percent nylon-6 polymer that must be treated with zinc chloride (ZnCl2) to bond the fibers. Because of stricter Environmental Protection Agency regulation of ZnCl2 emissions, the battery community has been searching for new separators to replace Pellon 2505. As of today, two candidate separator materials have been identified; however, neither of the two materials have performed as well as Pellon 2505. The separator test procedures that were devised at Lewis are being implemented to expedite the search for new battery separators. The new test procedures, which are being carried out in the Separator Laboratory at Lewis, have been designed to guarantee accurate evaluations of the properties that are critical for sustaining proper battery operation. These properties include physical and chemical stability, chemical purity, gas permeability, electrolyte retention and distribution, uniformity, porosity, and area resistivity. A manual containing a detailed description of 12 separator test procedures has been drafted and will be used by the battery community to evaluate candidate separator materials for specific applications. These standardized procedures will allow for consistent, uniform, and reliable results that will ensure that separator materials have the desired properties for long life and good performance in secondary alkaline cells.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2009

Detection of Subsurface Material Separation in Shuttle Orbiter Slip-Side Joggle Region of the Wing Leading Edge using Infrared Imaging Data from Arc Jet Tests

The objective of the present study was to determine whether infrared imaging (IR) surface temperature data obtained during arc-jet tests of Space Shuttle Orbiter s reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) wing leading edge panel slip-side joggle region could be used to detect presence of subsurface material separation, and if so, to determine when separation occurs during the simulated entry profile. Recent thermostructural studies have indicated thermally induced interlaminar normal stress concentrations at the substrate/coating interface in the curved joggle region can result in local subsurface material separation, with the separation predicted to occur during approach to peak heating during reentry. The present study was an attempt to determine experimentally when subsurface material separations occur. A simplified thermal model of a flat RCC panel with subsurface material separation was developed and used to infer general surface temperature trends due to the presence of subsurface material separation. IR data from previously conducted arc-jet tests on three test specimens were analyzed: one without subsurface material separation either pre or post test, one with pre test separation, and one with separation developing during test. The simplified thermal model trend predictions along with comparison of experimental IR data of the three test specimens were used to successfully infer material separation from the arc-jet test data. Furthermore, for the test specimen that had developed subsurface material separation during the arc-jet tests, the initiation of separation appeared to occur during the ramp up to the peak heating condition, where test specimen temperature went from 2500 to 2800 F.

Daryabeigi, Kamran↗
DOE OSTI2012

Ruthenium Behavior at Phase Separation of Borosilicate Glass-12259

The Rokkasho reprocessing plant (RRP) located in Aomori, Japan, vitrifies high level waste (HLW) into a borosilicate glass. The HLW is generated from the reprocessing of spent fuel and contains ruthenium (Ru) and other platinum group metals (PGMs). Based on the recent consequences after a huge earthquake that occurred in Japan, a hypothetical blackout was postulated for the RRP to address additional safety analysis requirements. During a prolonged blackout, the borosilicate glass could phase separate due to cooling of the glass in the melter. The Ru present in the glass matrix could migrate into separate phases and impact the durability of the borosilicate glass. The durability of the glass is important for quality assurance and performance assessment of the vitrified HLW. A fundamental study was performed at an independent university to understand the impact of a prolonged blackout. Simulated HLW glasses were prepared for the RRP, and the Ru behavior in phase separated glasses was studied. The simulated HLW glasses contained nonradioactive elements and PGMs. The glass compositions were then altered to enhance the formation of the phase-separated glasses when subjected to thermal treatment at 700 deg. C for 24 hours. The synthesized simulated glasses contained 1.1 % Ru by weight as ruthenium dioxide (RuO{sub 2}). A portion of the RuO{sub 2} formed needle-shaped crystals in the glass specimens. After the thermal treatment, the glass specimen had separated into two phases. One of the two phases was a B{sub 2}O{sub 3} rich phase, and the other phase was a SiO{sub 2} rich phase. The majority of the chemical species in the B{sub 2}O{sub 3} rich phase was leached away with the Material Characterization Center-3 (MCC-3) protocol standardized by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory using an aqueous low-concentrated nitric acid solution, but the leaching of the Ru fraction was very limited; less than 1% of the original Ru content. The Ru leaching was much less than those of the other elements, and the needle-shaped crystals of RuO{sub 2} were observed in the B{sub 2}O{sub 3} rich phase in the specimen after the leaching test. Another experiment was performed using another glass specimen which had been prepared with the same frits, but used reagent RuO{sub 2} of granular shape at lower content (0.0073% by weight as RuO{sub 2}). The leached fractions of elements for the latter specimen increased to almost the same fraction (more than 10% of the original Ru content) as observed for boron and sodium, when the phase separated glass was leached using the MMC-3 protocol with non-acidic de-ionized water. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that needle-shaped RuO{sub 2} crystals are contained in the B{sub 2}O{sub 3}-rich phase after phase separation of the borosilicate glass after a hypothetical blackout. The leaching fraction for the needle-shaped RuO{sub 2} present in the phase separated glass is much lower than those for boron or sodium. Ruthenium behavior has been studied for a hypothetical loss of cooling in the liquid fed ceramic melter for high level waste by taking into account the phase separation of borosilicate glass. The needle-shaped crystal of ruthenium dioxide after bi-nodal-type phase separation of the borosilicate glass at 700 deg. C migrated into the B{sub 2}O{sub 3} rich phase, but remained without dissolution by an acidic aqueous solution. Additionally, granular ruthenium dioxide can be a morphological form of ruthenium after bimodal-type phase separation of the vitrified high level waste with borosilicate glass media. After the phase separation of the borosilicate glass, the crystal shape of the ruthenium dioxide is either needle-shaped or granular, and the leachable fraction of ruthenium is relatively much lower than those of major components (boron and sodium) in the vitrified borosilicate glass. The fraction of leached ruthenium increased to almost the same fraction as observed for boron and sodium when the phase-separated glass was leached with ultrapure water. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Kr/Xe SeparatioKr/Xe Separation over Metal Organic Framework Membranes

The central thrust of this project is to develop a novel family of continuous membranes, composed of porous crystalline membranes (mainly metal organic frameworks) which offer the possibility of demonstrating high separation performance for Kr/Xe gas mixtures. The specific objectives of the proposed work are: (1) The development of continuous and reproducible MOF membranes on porous tubular supports displaying high Kr permeabilities and high Kr/Xe separation selectivities.(2) Demonstrating the membrane performance long term stability.(3) Establish the basic structure/separation relationships of MOF membranes in Kr/Xe separations, and (4) Demonstrating that membrane synthesis could be amenable to large scale production. We have demonstrated that porous crystalline molecular sieve membranes including metal organic frameworks, zeolites, and alumino phosphates can effectively separate Kr/Xe gas mixtures ate industrially relevant compositions. Specifically, these three compositions correspond to a different family of microporous crystals, namely zeolites (SAPO-34), metal organic frameworks (ZIF-8) and alumino phosphates (AlPO-18). SAPO-34 membranes displayed the best overall separation performance, while AlPO-18 membranes displayed the highest Kr permeances. The key factors affecting the separation selectivity and permeance of these membranes were identified, and decoupled. The presence of rigid micropores with size lying between Kr and Xe atomic sizes, lower Xe/Kr uptakes (adsorption selectivity), and lower concentration of non-selective pores led to the highest observed Kr/Xe separation selectivities among these three microporous crystals, which corresponded to SAPO-34. The Kr permeances for these three microporous crystalline membrane compositions decreased exponentially with membrane thickness. The best membranes separated Kr/Xe gas mixtures with separation selectivities as high as 45 and Kr permeances ~ as high as 1.2 x 10 -7 mol/m 2 s Pa. In addition, SAPO-34 and ZIF-8 membranes were effective in separating Air/Xe mixtures. With separation selectivities as high as 30, and air permeances of 2.3 x 10 -7 mol/m 2 s Pa. Finally, we explore the synthesis in powder form of other potentially suitable porous crystals that if prepared in membrane form could be highly appealing candidates for Kr/Xe and Air/Xe separation. These crystals are porous organic cages which potentially can molecular sieve Kr and air from Xenon based on the unimodal pore sizes lying between the size of the permeant molecules.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Hydrogen Isotope Separation from Aqueous Streams using Zeolite Membranes

Efficient separation of heavy hydrogen isotopes {sup 3}H (or T, tritium) and {sup 2}H (or D, deuterium) from {sup 1}H has been a long-standing endeavor in nuclear fuel cycle research and development. For example, tritium (half-life 12.3 years) is a fission product from nuclear plants and is found as tritiated water (HTO) in effluent streams from nuclear installations. Tritium must be concentrated and removed from such aqueous streams for waste storage. The separation of deuterium from deuterated water (HDO) has applications in heavy water production, and can also be used as a nonradioactive simulant in HTO separation research. Several methods have been explored such as ion exchange/adsorption and membrane permeation. Adsorption by molecular sieving materials such as zeolites can separate tritiated water from water with moderate selectivity (HTO/H{sub 2}O separation factor∼1.2-1.4) due to a subtle difference in adsorption characteristics between the two species. However, there remains a requirement for high-selectivity continuous separation of heavy hydrogen isotopes from water. Here we demonstrate new results on the use of zeolite membranes as a potential high-performance, low-cost, radiation-stable candidate for such separations. In zeolite membranes, separation of HTO (or HDO) from water would take place by a combination of adsorption and diffusion characteristics. Here we describe the hydrogen isotope separation properties of silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO-34) membranes synthesized on porous α-alumina supports. D{sub 2}O/H{sub 2}O feed mixtures of realistic compositions are used as a non-radioactive simulant for tritiated water feeds. Our results show promising applications of zeolite membranes for hydrogen isotope separation and recovery. In summary, SAPO-34 membranes were fabricated and investigated to demonstrate their pervaporative separation properties for D{sub 2}O-H{sub 2}O binary systems. These membrane exhibit high selectivity (up to ∼19) for D{sub 2}O and good permeance (> 600 GPU) even at low concentrations of D{sub 2}O in the feed, making them highly interesting candidates for capture of heavy hydrogen isotopes (D and T) from aqueous streams encountered in the nuclear fuel cycle. The mechanism of separation appears to involve both diffusivity and adsorption differences as expected in nanoporous materials, even though detailed identification of their respective contributions is a subject of future work. We also hypothesize that tritiated (T{sub 2}O/H{sub 2}O) mixtures will also show similar performance in relation to the present deuterated mixtures. This is planned to be further investigated through pervaporation measurements. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Rotary Drum Separator and Pump for the Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction System

A trade study conducted in 2001 selected a rotary disk separator as the best candidate to meet the requirements for an International Space Station (ISS) Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA). The selected technology must provide micro-gravity gasfliquid separation and pump the liquid from 10 psia at the gasfliquid interface to 18 psia at the wastewater bus storage tank. The rotary disk concept, which has pedigree in other systems currently being built for installation on the ISS, failed to achieve the required pumping head within the allotted power. The separator discussed in this paper is a new design that was tested to determine compliance with performance requirements in the CRA. The drum separator and pump @SP) design is similar to the Oxygen Generator Assembly (OGA) Rotary Separator Accumulator (RSA) in that it has a rotating assembly inside a stationary housing driven by a integral internal motor. The innovation of the DSP is the drum shaped rotating assembly that acts as the accumulator and also pumps the liquid at much less power than its predecessors. In the CRA application, the separator will rotate at slow speed while accumulating water. Once full, the separator will increase speed to generate sufficient head to pump the water to the wastewater bus. A proof-of- concept (POC) separator has been designed, fabricated and tested to assess the separation efficiency and pumping head of the design. This proof-of-concept item was flown aboard the KC135 to evaluate the effectiveness of the separator in a microgravity environment. This separator design has exceeded all of the performance requirements. The next step in the separator development is to integrate it into the Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction System. This will be done with the Sabatier Engineering Development Unit at the Johnson Space Center.

Holder, Don↗
NASA NTRS2010

International Space Station Common Cabin Air Assembly Water Separator On-Orbit Operation, Failure, and Redesign

The ability to control the temperature and humidity of an environment or habitat is critical for human survival. These factors are important to maintaining human health and comfort, as well as maintaining mechanical and electrical equipment in good working order to support the human and to accomplish mission objectives. The temperature and humidity of the International Space Station (ISS) United States On-orbit Segment (USOS) cabin air is controlled by the Common Cabin Air Assembly (CCAA). The CCAA consists of a fan, a condensing heat exchanger (CHX), an air/water separator, temperature and liquid sensors, and electrical controlling hardware and software. The Water Separator (WS) pulls in air and water from the CHX, and centrifugally separates the mixture, sending the water to the condensate bus and the air back into the CHX outlet airstream. Two distinct early failures of the CCAA Water Separator in the Quest Airlock forced operational changes and brought about the re-design of the Water Separator to improve the useful life via modification kits. The on-orbit operational environment of the Airlock presented challenges that were not foreseen with the original design of the Water Separator. Operational changes were instituted to prolong the life of the third installed WS, while waiting for newly designed Water Separators to be delivered on-orbit. The modification kit design involved several different components of the Water Separator, including the innovative use of a fabrication technique to build the impellers used in Water Separators out of titanium instead of aluminum. The technique allowed for the cost effective production of the low quantity build. This paper will describe the failures of the Water Separators in the Quest Airlock, the operational constraints that were implemented to prolong the life of the installed Water Separators throughout the USOS, and the innovative re-design of the CCAA Water Separator.

Balistreri, Steven F., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Chabazite Zeolite Membranes for Krypton/Xenon Separation: Control of Membrane Properties and Process Modeling

Nuclear energy is considered to be a clean and economical means of carbon-free energy. As part of the overall process for recycling used nuclear fuel (UNF), it is necessary to develop technologies to separate the off-gases formed during the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power reactors. The off-gas stream is generated during the shearing and chopping, voloxidation, and acid dissolution steps, and would have a flow rate of ∼2500 L/min assuming a typical 800 tons heavy metal/yr reprocessing facility. Kr separation from Xe is one of the steps in a proposed UNF off-gas processing flowsheet. The Kr/Xe mixture is approximately 10/90 by volume and hence the separation of Kr would reduce the volume of radioactive {sup 85}Kr waste by a factor of 10. Kr/Xe separation is challenging since they are both chemically inert species and physically very similar (0.036 nm size difference). There is no existing process for this separation that is suitable for use in UNF recycling since conventional cryogenic distillation requires highly intensive power and large system volume. Membrane-based separation using radiation-stable materials such as zeolites could be an attractive separation method, if membranes with sufficient Kr flux and selectivity can be fabricated. Zeolite membranes offer an opportunity to exploit the size difference of Kr (kinetic diameter 0.36 nm) and Xe (0.396 nm) to achieve preferential permeation of the minority component (Kr) from the mixture, leading to an efficient separation with very low energy requirements. An ideal membrane process would permeate a stream of pure Kr for storage and also produce pure Xe which has commercial value (> $8000/kg at 99+% purity). SAPO-34 is a silico-alumino-phosphate zeolite molecular sieve with CHA framework topology and containing uniform micropores (0.38 nm), intermediate in size between the kinetic diameters of Kr and Xe. It was hypothesized that SAPO-34 membranes can separate krypton and xenon by diffusivity differences. Previously we fabricated SAPO-34 membranes and showed that they are capable of separating Kr from Xe. Our previous work also indicated that there is much potential for engineering the separation properties of these membranes with a view to improving permeance and selectivity and evaluating the expected process performance. The main objectives of the present study are: 1) development of SAPO-34 membranes with enhanced membrane performance via thickness reduction and ion exchange, and 2) process modeling for technic-economic analysis of zeolite membrane systems for Kr/Xe separation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Designer Metal–Organic Frameworks for Size–Exclusion–Based Hydrocarbon Separations: Progress and Challenges

The separation of hydrocarbons is of primary importance in the petrochemical industry but remains a challenging process. Hydrocarbon separations have traditionally relied predominantly on costly and energy intensive heat-driven procedures such as low temperature distillations. Adsorptive separation based on porous solids represents an alternative technology that is potentially more energy efficient for the separation of some hydrocarbons. Great efforts have been made recently not only on the development of adsorbents with optimal separation performance but also towards the subsequent implementation of adsorption-based separation technology. Emerging as a relatively new class of multifunctional porous materials, metal-organic frameworks hold substantial promise as adsorbents for highly efficient separation of hydrocarbons. This is because of their exceptional and intrinsic porosity tunability which enables size-exclusion based separations that render the highest possible separation selectivity. In this review, we highlight the recent advances in the development of MOFs for separation of selected groups of hydrocarbons, including methane/C2 hydrocarbons, normal alkanes, alkane isomers, alkane/alkene/alkyne, and C8 alkylaromatics, with a particular focus on separations based on size-exclusion mechanism. Insights into tailor-made structures, material design strategies, and structure-property relations will be elucidated. In addition, the existing challenges and possible future directions of this important research field will be discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Silver-mediated separations: A comprehensive review on advancements of argentation chromatography, facilitated transport membranes, and solid-phase extraction techniques and their applications

The use of silver(I) ions in chemical separations, also known as argentation separations, is a powerful approach for the selective separation and analysis of many natural and synthetic organic compounds. In this review, a comprehensive discussion of the most common argentation separation techniques, including argentation-liquid chromatography (Ag-LC), argentation-gas chromatography (Ag-GC), argentation-facilitated transport membranes (Ag-FTMs), and argentation-solid phase extraction (Ag-SPE) is provided. For each of these techniques, notable advancements, optimized separations, and innovative applications are discussed. The review begins with an explanation of the fundamental chemistry underlying argentation separations, mainly the reversible π-complexation between silver(I) ions and carbon-carbon double bonds. Within Ag-LC, the use of silver(I) ions in thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, as well as preparative LC are explored. This discussion focuses on how silver(I) ions are employed in the stationary and mobile phase to separate unsaturated compounds. For Ag-GC and Ag-FTMs, different silver compounds and supporting media are discussed, often with relation to olefin-paraffin separations. Ag-SPE has been widely employed for the selective extraction of unsaturated compounds from complex matrices in sample preparation. This comprehensive review of Ag-LC, Ag-GC, Ag-FTMs, and Ag-SPE techniques emphasizes the immense potential of argentation separations in separations science and serves as a valuable resource for researchers seeking to learn, optimize, and utilize argentation separations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Dramatically improve the Safety Performance of Li ion Battery Separators and Reduce the Manufacturing Cost Using Ultraviolet Curing and High Precision Coating Technologies

The objective of this project was to improve the safety of operation of Lithium ion batteries (LIB)and at the same time significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of LIB separators. The project was very successful in demonstrating the improved performance and reduced cost attributed to using UV curable binder and high speed printing technology to place a very thin and precisely controlled ceramic layer on the surface of base separators made of polyolefins such as Polyethylene, Polypropylene and combinations of the two as well as cellulosic base separators. The underlying need for this new technology is the recently identified potential of fire in large format Lithium ion batteries used in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. The primary potential cause of battery fire is thermal runaway caused by several different electrical or mechanical mechanisms; such as, overcharge, puncture, overheating, compaction, and internal short circuit. During thermal runaway, the ideal separator prevents ion flow and continues to physically separate the anode from the cathode. If the temperature of the battery gets higher, the separator may melt and partially clog the pores and help prevent ion flows but it also can shrink which can result in physical contact of the electrodes and accelerate thermal run-away even further. Ceramic coated separators eliminate many of the problems related to the usage of traditional separators. The ceramic coating provides an electrically insulating layer that retains its physical integrity at high temperature, allows for more efficient thermal heat transfer, helps reduce thermal shrinkage, and inhibits dendrite growth that could create a potential short circuit. The use of Ultraviolet (UV) chemistry to bind fine ceramic particles on separators is a unique and innovative approach primarily because of the instant curing of the UV curable binder upon exposure to UV light. This significant reduction in drying/curing time significantly reduces the cost of a ceramic coating. Another innovation is high precision, high speed, printing techniques that can apply a unique pattern of ceramic particles on base separators. The pattern will maximize ionic conductivity and minimize ceramic coating weight and thickness, while retaining the benefits of increased puncture strength, reduced thermal shrinkage and no decomposition. This project has met all of its goals and has been successfully completed. This successful completion has enabled Miltec UV to take the final steps leading to the commercialization of an innovative technology that will result in ceramic coated separators that can be manufactured and sold from the US, with increased production capacity, reduced cost, and improved battery safety.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗