Control of dehumidification using polymer permeable membrane and its application to tritium removal system design

The gas separation membrane method using feedback control was studied for a tritium removal system. A standard proportional-integral-differential (PID) control of dehumidification using a hollow-fibre-type polyimide membrane module was effective in maintaining the dew point during long-time operation. Additionally, the dehumidification performance in the start-up period was improved by the PID control or vacuum drying in the membrane module during a shutdown period. The time to lower dew point was shortened by half, and the amount of desorbed water in the start-up period was reduced by approximately one-tenth. These experimental results show that the proposed method could be a powerful tool for tritium removal systems.