Separation of volatile radionuclides (Carbon dioxide noble gases) from the off-gas streams of a used nuclear fuel reprocessing facility has been a topic of significant research. The current technology uses energy intensive cryogenic distillation, which is expensive. Another downside of this approach is the accumulation of ozone due to radiolysis of oxygen. Therefore, alternate technologies, and associated materials, are needed for separation of CO2 and noble gases over other gases including N<sub>2</sub>, O<sub>2</sub> and Ar. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is exploring porous materials including new class of materials called metal organic frameworks (MOFs) for noble gas separation at near room temperature. Our laboratory results demonstrate the small pore MOFs outperform traditional adsorbent materials such as Zeolites and activated carbons at room and low temperature with high adsorption capacity and selectivity. The high selectivity towards volatile gases over other gases at low concentration indicates the perfect match between the pore size and the kinetic diameter of the gas species.

Metal-organic frameworks for volatile radionuclide separation

2019 Spring National Meeting

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