title: Evaluation of tertiary pyridine resin for the separation of lanthanides by simulated moving-bed chromatography.
abstract: Lanthanide separation by simulated moving-bed chromatography was studied as a model system for separating lanthanide fission products and minor actinides from used nuclear fuels. The simulated moving-bed system was modeled for a tertiary pyridine anion-exchange resin supported on silica particles as the stationary phase and a mixture of methanol and 1 M nitric acid as the mobile phase. Pulse injection tests using a single packed column were used to obtain chromatographic parameters for mathematical modeling of the simulated moving-bed system. Higher concentrations of methanol improved the separation, but the chromatograms showed evidence of nonlinearity of the isotherms. The mathematical model of the simulated moving-bed process predicted a production rate of purified samarium and neodymium at 118 g solute/L resin/day and a purity of 99.5%. The optimal methanol ratio for the production rate for various product purities was determined from the model. The excellent separation of Nd and Sm suggests that the simulated moving-bed system could be applied to the separation of minor actinides such as americium and curium.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Balamurali
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sreedhar
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: David T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Hobbs
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawajiri
keywords: Actinides; Lanthanides; Nuclear fuel; Simulated moving-bed; Tertiary pyridine