- #1
Hologram0110
- 201
- 10
Hi everyone,
I'm a nuclear engineering student so my chemistry knowledge is limited to a couple of courses in first year so please be patient with me.
I was wondering how difficult or expensive would it be to produce hydrocarbons with deuterium instead of hydrogen on a large scale? (say 100 tonnes with 95% or better Deuterium?) What about something like Monsanto OS-84 which is a mixture of partially hydrogenated terphenyls? (This has been used in the past as a coolant for nuclear reactors)
I ask because organic coolant for nuclear reactors offers some potential safety improvements but the hydrogen can absorb a significant number of neutrons compared to deuterium. I was wondering if the cost of producing duterated hydrocarbons would be more or less than the cost of the deterium to begin with.
All of the googling I've done went way over my head. I also think it was for laboratory scale production.
I'm a nuclear engineering student so my chemistry knowledge is limited to a couple of courses in first year so please be patient with me.
I was wondering how difficult or expensive would it be to produce hydrocarbons with deuterium instead of hydrogen on a large scale? (say 100 tonnes with 95% or better Deuterium?) What about something like Monsanto OS-84 which is a mixture of partially hydrogenated terphenyls? (This has been used in the past as a coolant for nuclear reactors)
I ask because organic coolant for nuclear reactors offers some potential safety improvements but the hydrogen can absorb a significant number of neutrons compared to deuterium. I was wondering if the cost of producing duterated hydrocarbons would be more or less than the cost of the deterium to begin with.
All of the googling I've done went way over my head. I also think it was for laboratory scale production.