Recovery of deuterium from water-isotopes in thermal diffusion columns connected in series

The effect of column number on the recovery of deuterium from the separation of water–isotope mixture by thermal diffusion has been investigated. The separation equations for performing in multiple thermal diffusion columns connected in series, have been derived. The improvement in separation is achievable by operating in a double-column device, instead of in a single-column device, with the same total column length. It is also found that further improvement in recovery is obtainable if a triple-column device is employed, except for operating under small total column length and low flow rate.