RESEARCH ON THE MASS PRODUCTION OF ¹³C

HU LIN LI^a,b,YONG LIN JU^a, LIANG JUN LI^b, AND DA GANG XU^b

^aInstitute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai JiaoTong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China

^bShanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry, 345East Yunling Road, Shanghai 200062, China

Abstract: A carbon monoxide cryogenic distillation pilotplant was built up in China in order to develop low-cost production technology.After six months running smoothly, it confirmed that the experimental columnmet the requirements of ¹³C enrichment and the production capabilityof the plant was significantly higher than conventional production facilitiesapplying random packing. The column was studied by computational simulation,and ideal conditions were evaluated at different pressures, F-factors, andreflux rations. Finally, an annual production capacity of 100 kilograms ¹³Cindustrial mass production plant was designed after uniform experiment designand computer simulation. Liquid nitrogen refrigeration cycle was utilized inthis industrial plant in order to save energy consumption, and an ideal cascadetransmission without rotary machine was exploited according to hydrodynamic principles.The total height of industrial plant was below 30 meters, and the productionefficiency could be greatly improved. Through energy efficiency analysis, itwas concluded that the newly designed industrial plant could decrease about 50%of the production cost compared to traditional devices, which provided a solidfoundation for ¹³C-breath test becomes a routine physical examination.

Keywords: ¹³C production; cryogenicdistillation; optimization design; computer simulation