Closed bioregenerative life support systems: Applicability to hot deserts

Abstract

Water scarcity in hot deserts, which cover about one-fifth of the Earth's land area, along with rapid expansion of hot deserts into arable lands is one of the key global environmental problems.As hot deserts are extreme habitats characterized by the availability of solar energy with a nearly complete absence of organic life and water, space technology achievements in designing closed ecological systems may be applicable to the design of sustainable settlements in the deserts. This review discusses the key space technology findings for closed biogenerative life support systems (CBLSS), which can simultaneously produce food, water, nutrients, fertilizers, process wastes, and revitalize air, that can be applied to hot deserts. Among them are the closed cycle of water and the acceleration of the cycling times of carbon, biogenic compounds, and nutrients by adjusting the levels of light intensity, temperature, carbon dioxide, and air velocity over plant canopies. Enhanced growth of algae and duckweed at higher levels of carbon dioxide and light intensity can be important to provide complete water recycling and augment biomass production.The production of fertilizers and nutrients can be enhanced by applying the subsurface flow wetland technology and hyper-thermophilic aerobic bacteria for treating liquid and solid wastes.The mathematical models, optimization techniques, and non-invasive measuring techniques developed for CBLSS make it possible to monitor and optimize the performance of such closed ecological systems. The results of long-duration experiments performed in BIOS-3, Biosphere 2, Laboratory Biosphere, and other ground-based closed test facilities suggest that closed water cycle can be achieved in hot-desert bioregenerative systems using the pathways of evapotranspiration, condensation, and biological wastewater treatment technologies. We suggest that the state of the art in the CBLSS design along with the possibility of using direct sunlight for * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-347-673-7747. E-mail address: ypolyakov@uspolyresearch.com (Yu.S. Polyakov). 2 photosynthesis and recent advances in photovoltaic engineering can be used as a basis for building sustainable settlements producing food, water, and energy in hot deserts.

Supplementing Closed Ecological Life Support Systems with In-Situ Resources on the Moon

“…It has even been suggested that CELSS technology such as MELiSSA may assist in reclaiming hot desert regions to counter rapid desertification for productive arable farming using closed resource cycles [ 101 ]. Such regions offer high intensity PAR (productivity increases linearly with photo intensity until saturation at 2.5L 0 ), high temperature (by 30% from 17 °C to 23 °C) and high atmospheric CO 2 levels (by 30–40% at 800 ppm) to enhance arable productivity.…”

Solution of the Dyson-Schwinger equation on a de Sitter background in the infrared limit

“…(Here we reproduce the arguments of Polyakov [13]). Let us perform an infinitesimal rotation around X 0 towards, say, X 1 : X D !…”

Reciclagem da poeira de aciaria elétrica na sinterização de minério de ferro visando a eliminação de zinco.

“…Conforme o trabalho de Polyakov e Makorova (16) , bolhas de CO que são originadas no interior do banho metálico promovem o fenômeno de ejeção das gotas.…”

“…O teor de carbono no metal líquido influencia na geração da PAE, estudos mostraram que a ejeção das gotas foi predominante nos momentos em que existe mais carbono e pouca escória (estágio inicial do sopro no conversor). Além disso, a vaporização de elementos com baixo ponto de ebulição atua como um segundo mecanismo de formação da PAE, sendo que este ocorre principalmente no último estágio do sopro (16) .…”