PandaX-4T cryogenic distillation system for removing krypton from xenon
Rui Yan, Zhou Wang, Xiangyi Cui, Yonglin Ju, Haidong Sha, Shuaijie Li, Peiyao Huang, Xiuli Wang, Wenbo Ma, Yingjie Fan, Li Zhao, Jianglai Liu, Xiangdong Ji, Jifang Zhou, Changsong Shang, Liqiang Liu
Abstract
An efficient cryogenic distillation system was designed and constructed for the PandaX-4T dark matter detector based on the McCabe–Thiele method and the conservation of mass and energy. This distillation system is designed to reduce the concentration of krypton in commercial xenon from 5 × 10−7 to ∼10−14 mol/mol with 99% xenon collection efficiency at a maximum flow rate of 10 kg/h. The offline distillation operation has been completed and 5.75 tons of ultra-high purity xenon was produced, which is used as the detection medium in the PandaX-4T detector. The krypton concentration of the product xenon is measured with an upper limit of 8.0 ppt. The construction, operation, and stable purification performance of the cryogenic distillation system are studied with the experimental data, which is important for theoretical research and distillation operation optimization.