SEPARATION OF ZIRCONIUM AND HAFNIUM:A REVIEW

摘要：

　　Zirconium is an ideal material for nuclear reactors due to its low absorption cross-section for thermal neutrons,whereas the typically contained hafnium with strong neutron-absorption is very harmful for zirconium.This paper provides an overview of the processes for separating hafnium from zirconium.The separation processes are roughly classified into hydro-and pyrometallurgical routes.The current dominant zirconium production route involves pyrometallurgical ore cracking,multi-step hydrometallurgical liquid-liquid extraction for hafnium removal and the reduction of zirconium tetrachloride to the pure metal by the Kroll process.The lengthy hydrometallurgical Zr-Hf separation operations leads to high production cost,intensive labour and heavy environmental burden.Using a compact pyrometallurgical separation method can simplify the whole production flowsheet with a higher process efficiency.The known separation methods are discussed based on the following reaction features: redox characteristics,volatility,electrochemical properties and molten salt extraction.The commercially operating extractive distillation process is a significant advance in Zr-Hf separation technology but it suffers from high process maintenance cost.The recently developed new process based on molten salt-metal equilibrium for Zr–Hf separation shows a great potential for industrial application,which is compact for nuclear grade zirconium production starting from crude ore.In the present paper,the available separation technologies are compared.The advantages and disadvantages as well as future directions of research and development for nuclear grade zirconium production are discussed.

关键词： nuclear grade zirconium hafnium removal technology overview

作者: L.Xu Y.Xiao A.van Sandwijk Q.Xu Y.Yang

作者单位: Department of Materials Science and Engineering,Delft University of Technology Mekelweg 2 Delft,2628 School of Metallurgical Engineering,Anhui University of Technology Hu Dong Lu 59 Maanshan,Anhui,243 Zr-Hf-Ti Metallurgie B.V.Van der Heimstraat 62 Den Haag,2582 SB,The Netherlands School of Materials and Metallurgy,Northeastern University Wen Hua Lu 3-11 Shenyang,Liaoning,110004, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,Delft University of Technology Mekelweg 2 Delft,2628

会议类型: 国际会议

会议名称: Energy Materials 2014(第一届能源材料国际会议)

会议地点: 西安

会议语种:英文

页码: 451-457

在线出版日期: 2014-11-04（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）