Kinetics study of the fluorination of uranium tetrafluoride in a fluidized bed reactor

The kinetics of reaction of the uranium tetrafluoride conversion to the uranium hexafluoride with fluorine gas taking place in a fluidized bed reactor operating in industrial conditions have been studied. The external and internal diffusion effects are investigated by Mears and Weisz–Prater criterions. The kinetic equation for the fluorination of uranium tetrafluoride is developed in the absence of diffusional limitation using an integral method by assuming that the gas flow is of plug or perfectly mixed type. A good agreement is observed between the experimental data and a first-order model with respect to fluorine in the CSTR system. The activation energy of the reaction and the pre-exponential factor are obtained using analytical results from a better model.