Fusion Programme - ENEA - Fusione

14. Miscellaneous2007 Progress ReportDuring the tests the voltage drop over the resistive and HTS parts and the temperatures at the warm endof the resistive heat exchanger and at the warm end of the HTS have to be monitored and recorded.Furthermore, the mass flow and pressure drop of the gaseous helium have to be measured.Two couples of leads have been measured, one of 13 kA and the second of 6 kA. The 13-kA leads havebeen tested in dc operation at different current ratings, starting with the lowest, 4630 A, then going up to6600 A, 7830 A, 9000 A and finally to the maximum of 13000 A. Each current plateau will be kept for aduration of 1 h. The 6-kA leads will be tested in dc operation at the same currents, except 13000 A.14.5 Pd-Ag Permeator TubeProject (FIRB RBAU01K4HJ) funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University andResearch. Ethanol steam reforming was carried out in a membrane reactor consisting of a catalyst bed(Ru, Pt and Ni based) packed into athin-wall Pd-Ag permeator tubeproduced via cold-rolling anddiffusion welding of metal foils . Theexperimental tests were performed(fig. 14.6) in the temperature range400–450°C with the aim of studyingthe performance of the membranereactor in terms of hydrogen yields[14.11-14.13]. A multi-tubemembrane reactor consisting of19 Pd-Ag thin-wall tubes wastested: up to 3 L/min of purehydrogen was produced via ethanolsteam reforming and the water gasshift reaction. A further model andexperimental work on thepermeation properties of membranereactors produced by ENEA and ofFig. 14.6 - Apparatus for testing membranes and membrane reactorsthe Pd–Ag dense membranes werealso carried out [14.14–14.16].14.6 Participation in the AGILE Project and Development of X-rayDetectorsThe Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini Leggero (AGILE) [14.17], the Italian satellite for gamma and x-rayastronomy, was launched from the base of Sriharikota in India on the 23 April 2007. After a period ofcommissioning, the satellite started itsscientific operation regularly. SuperAGILEAg membrane reactor - Part 2. Pt-based and Ni-based catalystsand general comparison, to appear in J. Membrane Sci.[14.14] F. Gallucci et al., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 32, 1837 (2007)[14.15] F. Gallucci et al., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 32, 4052 (2007)[14.16] F. Gallucci et al., Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 32, 1201 (2007)[14.17] M. Tavani et al., The AGILE mission and its scientific instrument,Proc. of the SPIE, Vol. 6266, pp. 626603 (2006)189