| Summary: | Experimental findings to contribute to the preliminary design of a metal foil pump for fuel separation in the Direct Internal Recycling loop of the DEMO fusion device are presented. In parametric studies on a small-scale superpermeation experiment with a microwave plasma source and two different metal foil materials, niobium Nb and vanadium V, a substantial increase in permeation with plasma power and with a decrease in pressure was observed. To ease operation in the typical fusion environment, in-situ heating procedures were developed to recover from impurity contamination. The temperature independence of plasma-driven permeation from 600 to 900 °C metal foil temperature was demonstrated. No proof of an isotopic effect for plasma-driven permeation of protium and deuterium could be found. The highest repeatable permeation flux achieved was 6.7 Pa∙m<sup>3</sup>/(m<sup>2</sup>∙s) or ~5.5 × 10<sup>−3</sup> mol H/(m<sup>2</sup>∙s). The found compression ratios do safely allow the operation of the metal foil pump using ejector pumps as backing stages for the permeate. In a dedicated experimental setup, the operation of the plasma source in a strong magnetic field was tested. Parametric studies of pressure, power input, magnetic flux density, field gradient and field angle are presented.
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