Separation of gaseous mixtures of matter

US4115078A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Kraftwerk Union Aktiengesellschaft · DE

Inventors

• Karl Janner · Erlangen, DE
• Klaus Gregorius · Copenhagen, DK

Key dates

• Filing date: May 21, 1975
• Grant date: Sep 19, 1978
• Expiry date: May 21, 1995

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S3/083
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A gaseous jet of a mixture of matter or isotopes to be separated is penetrated by a polarized electromagnetic wave, e.g., a laser or maser beam. The required frequency is in the vicinity of a resonant frequency of a molecular dipole of the substance to be separated. For deflecting the mixture components and therefore, their separation, the forces on the molecular dipoles produced by the electric and/or the magnetic field are utilized. SU PAC BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns a method for separating gaseous mixtures of matter or isotopes. The problem of separating mixtures of matter into their individual components occurs frequently in technology. Among this class of problems are, for instance, also the concentration and depletion of individual substances in mixtures of substances, such as, in nuclear technology, the enrichment of fissionable uranium 235, of which only 0.7% is present in the natural isotope mixture of uranium. The methods heretofore applied for this purpose, e.g., gas diffusion installations, are very elaborate and accordingly, also very expensive, particularly because of the very high energy consumption. Other possibilities of reaching this…