US 2024/0382867 A1 · COLD TRAP FOR EXTRACTING CHEMICAL SPECIES BY FREEZE DISTILLATION

Abstract

A cold trap is designed to receive an incoming gas mixture and selectively deposit a chemical species on internal walls of the cold trap and exhausting undesired contaminant species from the cold trap. The cold trap includes a thermal control system designed to maintain a deposition temperature on the internal walls to achieve freeze distillation of the chemical species. The cold trap also includes an inlet and/or outlet configured to maintain a pressure in the cold trap to achieve selective deposition of the chemical species into a solid phase without condensing or depositing other chemical species. The thermal control system maintains isothermal conditions on the internal walls while rejecting heat generated in the cold trap to a cold environment outside of the cold trap. In some implementations, the selectively deposited chemical species is water and the cold environment is a lunar environment.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A cold trap comprising:

an inlet for receiving a gas mixture comprising a desired chemical species and undesired chemical species, wherein the desired chemical species and undesired chemical species have different phase equilibria;
a body in fluid communication with the inlet and through which the gas mixture flows, wherein the body includes internal walls and one or more internal structural components;
an outlet for exhausting at least the undesired chemical species from the cold trap, wherein the body is in fluid communication with the outlet;
a shell thermally exposed to an environment outside of the cold trap;
and
a thermal control system configured to control a temperature of the internal walls and one or more internal structural components, wherein the thermal control system maintains a deposition temperature at a pressure that selectively deposits the desired chemical species to a solid phase on the internal walls and the one or more internal structural components without condensing or depositing the undesired chemical species.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Cold trap for extracting chemical species by freeze distillation

Life of this patent

Cold trap for extracting chemical species by freeze distillation

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21