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2024 Meeting Schedule
| Wednesday, May 1 |
May Student and Teacher Awards Night at NKU
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| Thursday, March 29 |
March Meeting at the Manor House
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| Thursday, February 15 |
February Meeting at MSJ
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| Thursday, January 18 |
January Meeting at UC
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Creating Value from Waste: Metal Organic Frameworks for Xenon and Krypton Separation
Mt St Joseph University, Molloy Room
5701 Delhi Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45233
Thursday, February 15, 2024 (5:30 PM)
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Abstract: Volatile fission products such as Iodine, Tritium, Carbon-14 and noble gases (xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr)) are released when the fuel cladding is breached, and any fuel processing is performed. Likewise, large number of molten salt reactor (MSR) designs involve circulation of cover gas to remove evolved fission products and maintain an inert atmosphere. Although Xe is generated as a fission product, by the time the fuel is reprocessed, all the radioactive isotopes have decayed to very low concentrations. Radioactive 85Kr has a long half-life (t1/2 = 10.8 years) and therefore must be captured and removed from the off-gas to prevent its uncontrolled release into the atmosphere. However, high purity of Xe is used in many applications, including commercial lighting, propulsion, imaging, anesthesia, and insulation, therefore high purity of Xe recovered from these operations could be sold into the chemical market to offset operating costs of these nuclear plants. At present, cryogenic distillation is the most mature technology to separate Xe and Kr from air and from the reprocessing plants, but it is energy- and capital-intensive and therefore expensive. Furthermore, the radiolytic formation of ozone poses an explosion hazard during cryogenic distillation. These factors incentivize the development of an alternative technology for a less energy-intensive, more cost-effective, and safer process to capture Kr and Xe from reprocessing facility off-gas streams. In this regard, we at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory working on advanced functional materials and membranes such as Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as a templates for selective separation of these gases from off-gas stream at near room temperature as oppose to cryogenic distillation.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Praveen K. Thallapally research focus is on the development of multifunctional hierarchical materials (including stimuli responsive), membranes and thin films focused on porous metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and supramolecular hosts (Cucurbituril’s, Pillar[n]arene’s, calix[n]arene, etc) for adsorption, separation, extraction, sensing, and catalysis. His research on gas adsorption, separation, adsorption cooling and sensing using materials has been published in more than 50 DOE technical reports, five US patents, and 150 international peer-reviewed journals, as well as more than six reviews and five book chapters with over 10,000 citations and an H-index of 58.
Parking: Please navigate to 5701 Delhi Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45233. Park in Neeb Garage and follow red arrow on map to Molloy Room.
