An investigation into the feasibility of radioactive gas imaging for studies in process tomography

S. D. Bella,b, A. Ingrama, T. W. Leadbeaterb and D. J. Parkerb

aSchool of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom

bPositron Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Abstract

The powerful functional medical imaging technique of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) continues to be developed and adapted as a practical means of studying engineering processes at the University of Birmingham Positron Imaging Centre.

To date a considerable research effort has been made into the study of flow and mixing in solid and liquid systems and the development of Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) has made it possible to study multi-phase flow within industrial processes. However, little work has been reported on producing and imaging gases; this paper presents an initial investigation into the use of radioactive gas imaging for process systems.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) was used to design an experimental procedure which can observe the adsorption of 11CO2 onto a packed bed of zeolite 13X, a mineral which can provide specific separation of CO2 from other gases. A trial run was performed to determine the feasibility of imaging gases under steady state conditions and a data analysis protocol has been developed to allow the study of dynamic gaseous processes.

Keywords: Positron Emission Tomography; PET; gas imaging; Adsorption; CO2