Cerium oxalate precipitation: effect of process and operating parameters on cerium oxalate particle size distribution
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P. Vishnu Anand
,
Saroj K. Panda
and
A.W. Patwardhan
Abstract
The oxalate precipitation process has been adopted for the reconversion of plutonium nitrate present in nitric acid solution to plutonium oxide powder at the backend of nuclear fuel cycle. Due to the radioactivity associated with plutonium, the testing and development of plutonium oxalate precipitator can be conveniently performed using a non-radioactive surrogate such as cerium. In the present work, the effect of various operating and process parameters such as the concentration of nitric acid, cerium nitrate and oxalic acid, impeller design and speed, mode of precipitation on the particle size distribution of cerium oxalate was investigated. The results showed that the concentration of nitric acid and mode of precipitation were found to affect the particle size distribution of cerium oxalate to a significant extent. The D 50 of the cerium oxalate particles increased nearly five times (21–98 µm) with increasing the nitric acid concentration from 0.5 to 4.0 M. Forward strike mode of precipitation doubled the D 50 of cerium oxalate from 34 to 74 µm as compared to the typical batch precipitation. The cerium ion concentration in feed solution showed the negligible effect on D 50 of cerium oxalate, whereas width of the particle size distribution increased from 0.9 to 2.0 with increase of cerium in nitric acid from 3 to 43 g L−1. Lowering the concentration of oxalic acid produced smaller sized particles with broad particle size distribution. For real applications, the surrogate studies showed that it is important to control the concentration of nitric acid in the feed solution for producing bigger plutonium oxalate particles, which is required for facile operation, and to minimize the loss of residual plutonium in the filtrate.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: The authors declare that the artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used solely for language editing and improving readability in the preparation of manuscript. No AI generated content, data analysis, or scientific interpretations were incorporated into the research findings or conclusions. The final manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and approved by the authors.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: Not applicable.
Nomenclature
Symbols
- C
-
Concentration of cerium in the supersaturated solution (g L−1)
- C S
-
Concentration of cerium in the in the filtrate at equilibrium (g L−1)
- D 10
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Size point below which 10 % of the material is contained (µm)
- D 43
-
Volume mean diameter (µm)
- D 50
-
Size point below which 50 % of the material is contained (µm)
- D 90
-
Size point below which 90 % of the material is contained (µm)
- D T
-
Inside diameter of the precipitator (mm)
- D I
-
Diameter of the impeller (mm)
- H
-
Overall height of the precipitator (mm)
- N
-
Impeller speed (rpm)
- R
-
Span of particle size distribution
- W B
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Width of baffle (mm)
- W I
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Width of impeller blade (mm)
Acronyms
- B
-
Batch mode
- BDL
-
Below detection limit
- DM
-
Demineralised
- F
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Aqueous solution of cerium nitrate
- FS
-
Forward strike
- P
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Precipitant (oxalic acid solution)
- PBT
-
Pitched blade turbine impeller
- RS
-
Reverse strike
- RTD
-
Resistance Temperature Detector
- ST
-
Standard turbine impeller
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