In the present study

a bubble generator and a bubble separator were designed and evaluated for an independent off-gas removal system of a small thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR) with reference to the design of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ONRL). The bubble generator employed a Venturi tube as its main body owing to its simplicity and highly reliable structure. A centrifugal separator was used as the bubble separator

taking advantage of the kinetic energy of fluid to create a centrifugal force to separate gas bubbles from the mixture flow. Both the bubble generator and the separator were demonstrated to have good potential to meet the performance requirements of an off-gas removal system for a small TMSR. With water and air as the working fluids

for the final designs of the two key pieces of equipment

a liquid flow rate exceeding 15 m

3

·h

-1

can essentially make their performance meet the requirements of the off-gas removal system in terms of the average size of the generated bubbles and gas separation efficiency.