Integrated Process Gas Modeling for Tritium Systems at the Savannah River Site

Significant savings are being realized from the consolidated tritium gas-processing operations at the Savannah River Site. However, the trade-off is some reduction of operational flexibility due to decreased storage capacity for process and waste gases. Savannah River National Laboratory researchers are developing an integrated process gas model for tritium processing using Aspen Custom Modeler^TM (ACM) software. The modeling involves fully characterizing process flow streams (gas composition, quantity), frequency of batch transfers, and availability of equipment in the flow stream. The model provides a valuable engineering tool to identify flow bottlenecks, thereby enabling adjustments to be made to improve process operations.