Super-light water production in industrial installations

Recent studies have shown the effects of deuterium content in living organisms and influence of deuterium depleted water upon the growing speed of cells. In many cases a reduced deuterium concentration was found to inhibit the malignant cell reproduction. Super-light water with a deuterium content under 40 ppm was obtained in an industrial vacuum distillation installation of ROMAG (The Romanian Heavy Water Plant), a serial three column line, provided with special packing, used also in obtaining heavy water of nuclear purity. For production of super-light high chemical purity, de-mineralized water with a deuterium content of 142 ppm is used, while the feeding location in the first column is selected so that the exhausted zone contain 18 m of packing. The entire line has 72 m (each column containing 24 m) of packing. From experimental determinations obtained from a distillation line, operated over an 8 year period, and on the basis of a simulation model for isotopic separation, the packing efficiency was calculated. Also, the optimal operation regimes for obtaining super-light water (with a deuterium concentration of 40 ppm and 20 ppm) were obtained. The main results as compared with those obtained in heavy water preparation, using the same fabrication line and operation parameters, are given. The packing efficiency in super-light water separation is lower than that corresponding to heavy water by 2.2 trays/m , while the separation is 300 times higher at a packing of 6,000 l/h in the first column and 1,250 l/h in the following ones. If operated at optimal parameters the production line supplies about 220 l/h of 20 ppm and 250 l/h of 40 ppm super-light water