Method for blending and recirculating deuterium-containing gas

摘要

A method for blending a deuterium-containing gas mixture used for optical fiber manufacturing and for recovering, purifying and recirculating the mixture. Includes treating the optical fiber by soaking it in the deuterium-containing gas mixture in a process chamber (50). The spent or unused deuterium-containing gas is recovered (60) from the chamber and is purified (70). This purified deuterium-containing gas is passed to a first storage vessel (80). Gas is taken from the first storage vessel and is mixed with fresh deuterium gas (10) and analyzed for purity (30). If the purity is of sufficient quality, the blend of deuterium gases is preferably directed to a second (40) storage vessel and onwards to the process chamber (50) containing the optical fiber. If the purity is not satisfactory the gas mixture is returned to the first storage vessel (80). <IMAGE>