Membrane Process for High-Efficiency Water Recovery

Human presence in space for extended time periods will require closed regenerative life support systems in which water for crew use can be reclaimed from urine, hygiene waste waters and humidity condensate. New technology is required to provide for removal of impurities common to spacecraft waste waters. This proposal describes a new membrane separation process based on a unique principle that offers significant advantages over existing water recovery processes. A distinct advantage of the new process is its inherent ability to attain very high water recovery levels (i.e., 99%) from multiple waste water streams (i.e., containing inorganic, organic and biological contaminants) with minimum pretreatment. This is in contrast to existing systems which require several steps and often lead to the accumulation of substantial quantities of brines/reject concentrates that represent a significant water loss from the system. The specific goals of the research are to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the membrane separation process for high levels of water recovery from high load contaminated waste water and to demonstrate that the system is capable of efficiently recovering water from concentrates and brines. The research will involve the use of innovative membrane configurations that will render the process highly energy efficient (energy costs are projected to be 10-15 Whr/lb of water treated). Lynntech, Inc. will adopt a dual-use development approach because the technology has specific NASA and commercial applications.