Hydrogen production during the irradiation of gaseous organic compounds: Advantage of an extracted beam

Abstract This paper presents a fundamental study of the radiolysis of gaseous organic molecules induced by proton beam. For that purpose, a specific extracted beam line associated with a gas irradiation cell was set up on the 4 MV facility of the Institut de Physique Nucleaire of Lyon. The first experiments have been performed with gaseous alkanes and alkenes. The gaseous species formed during irradiation are analysed by an on-line gas chromatography instrument equipped with two detectors. In order to test our experimental facility, we have studied the influence of irradiation parameters (duration, beam intensity, pressure) on the production of hydrogen. In the case of propane, the radiolytic yield value of hydrogen G (H 2 ) is equal to 3.7 for total doses in the range of 0.4–2.3 MGy at atmospheric pressure.