Separation Performance of Krypton and Xenon from Argon Base Mixtures by Thermal Diffusion Column

Abstract

An advanced transport equation containing only three reduced terms H, K_C and K_d has been examined. The well-known, classical Furry-Jones-Onsager theory is ameliorated by introducing three factors such as a circulation constant of natural convection, new definitions of mean temperature between hot and cold wall and of mean composition from top to bottom in a thermal diffusion column.
The theory makes it possible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the separation performance for two component mixture under total reflux operation as a function of pressure. A correlation and analysis are made of steady state data obtained in the experiments of a hot-wire type thermal diffusion column using three kinds of gas mixture such as Ar-Kr, Ar-Xe and Kr-Xe.
Here are shown the reasons why the Furry-Jones theory could hardly predict the experimental separation performance in a steady state, though it has been sometimes considered that big difference between the theory and the experiments should be caused by "the parasitic remixing effects".