A COMPACT, EFFICIENT PYROLYSIS/OXIDATION SYSTEM FOR SOLID WASTE RESOURCE RECOVERY IN SPACE BOTH PYROLYSIS A…

Public award description

A COMPACT, EFFICIENT PYROLYSIS/OXIDATION SYSTEM FOR SOLID WASTE RESOURCE RECOVERY IN SPACE BOTH PYROLYSIS AND OXIDATION STEPS HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AS THE KEY SOLID WASTE PROCESSING STEP FOR A CONTROLLED ECOLOGICAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM (CELSS). PYROLYSIS IS MORE AMENABLE TO HANDLING MIXED SOLID WASTE STREAMS IN A MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT, BUT PRODUCES A MORE COMPLEX PRODUCT STREAM. OXIDATION (INCINERATION) PRODUCES A SIMPLER PRODUCT STREAM, BUT THE OXIDATION OF MIXED SOLIDS IS A COMPLEX UNIT OPERATION IN A MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENT. PYROLYSIS IS ENDOTHERMIC AND REQUIRES NO OXYGEN, WHILE OXIDATION IS EXOTHERMIC AND REQUIRES OXYGEN. A PREVIOUS NASA SBIR PHASE I AND PHASE II PROJECT HAS SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED PYROLYSIS OF THE SOLID WASTE AND OXIDATION OF THE FUEL GASES INTO A SINGLE, BATCH PROCESSING PROTOTYPE UNIT. THIS SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PHASE I PROJECT ADDRESSES THE FEASIBILITY OF INTEGRATING PYROLYSIS, TAR CRACKING, AND OXIDATION STEPS INTO A COMPACT, EFFICIENT SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING OF SPACECRAFT SOLID WASTES. THIS INTEGRATION WILL RESULT IN A REDUCTION IN ENERGY CONSUMPTION, AN OVERALL REDUCTION IN SYSTEM COMPLEXITY, AND A LOWER EQUIVALENT SYSTEM MASS (ESM). THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I STUDY IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS INTEGRATION PROCESS USING BENCH SCALE EXPERIMENTS. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED IN THREE TASKS: 1) DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT INTEGRATED BENCH SCALE UNIT; 2) LABORATORY STUDIES USING SIMULATED SOLID WASTE SAMPLE; 3) EVALUATION OF LABORATORY RESULTS AND PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF PHASE II PROTOTYPE.