Canada's Isowater Corp advances heavy water production

Canadian hydrogen isotopes supplier Isowater Corporation yesterday announced completion of a $3.2 million project to advance its D2X Process to produce heavy water (deuterium oxide, or D2O). Pressurised heavy water reactors use D2O as moderator, but there are a number of non-nuclear uses for the chemical compound.

The Collingwood, Ontario-based company said availability of D2O has been on the decline for the past decade as inventories are consumed and existing limited production capacity ages. At the same time rapid escalation of demand is occurring both in the traditional nuclear market, it said, as well as new and growing life science, high tech and environmental technology applications. Isowater has developed a process to produce D2O at a variety of concentrations ranging from 70% to greater than 99.995%.

Isowater president and CEO Andrew Stuart said that, as the world supply of D2O "shifts to shortage", the D2X Process will provide a "scalable method" to produce high-purity D2O to non-nuclear users and eventually the nuclear energy market.

This method "can be built on a much smaller scale than traditional production methods and produce D2O at costs below new builds of current production technology," Stuart said. And compared with current commercial technology, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 95% as well as completely eliminate noxious sulfur or ammonia compounds typically released to the environment, he said. The process is also suitable for private sector implementation "as opposed to historic technology which has been financed and operated by governments based on their nuclear energy policies", he said.

Non-traditional applications for D2O have flourished over the past decade in diverse markets, Isowater said, such as semiconductors, fibre optics, pharmaceuticals, medical procedures, health and beauty products, research applications, and hydrology. The company sells D2O to these markets and is preparing to recycle downgraded D2O from customers.

Private sector innovation has an important role to ensure a secure long-term future supply of D2O for non-nuclear users that is independent of government nuclear energy policy and spending decisions, the company said.

The D2X project was funded with contributions from Isowater, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (formerly Atomic Energy of Canada Limited), and a large international chemical company as well as a global industrial gas firm, which Isowater did not name.

D2O is a form of water in which both hydrogen atoms are the deuterium isotope as opposed to the protium isotopes (light hydrogen). Deuterium is a stable isotope. 

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News