Development of the Heat Melt Compactor for Waste Management during Long Duration Human Space Missions

Pace, Gregory; Fisher, John W.; Delzeit, Lance; Alba, Ric; Wignarajah, Kanapathipillai

doi:10.2514/6.2012-3545

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Trash produced aboard the ISS typically has ~30% H2O content by mass. 48 Most of this H2O comes from food and drink residues and hygiene wipes. Processing the trash to reclaim this H2O can help reduce the total stored H2O resource requirement for an exploration mission.…”

Section: Water Recovery From Trash Human Waste and Byproductsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding Requirements for Designing Life Support System Architectures for Crewed Exploration Missions Beyond Low-Earth Orbit

et al. 2016

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Section: Water Recovery From Trash Human Waste and Byproductsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding Requirements for Designing Life Support System Architectures for Crewed Exploration Missions Beyond Low-Earth Orbit

et al. 2016

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“…The HMC compacts and reduces the trash volume as much as 90% greater then the current manual compaction used by the crew. 1 Five HMC product tiles produced at ARC from either simulated space-generated trash or from actual space trash (Volume F compartment wet waste, returned on STS 130) underwent microbial characterization studies at KSC in 2011. Biological indicators (BI) were added to the STS trash prior to compaction in order to determine if imbedded spore-forming bacteria could survive the HMC processing conditions of high temperature (160 to 177 °C) over a long duration (1 to 3 hrs) (dry heat sterilization conditions).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat Melt Compaction as an Effective Treatment for Eliminating Microorganisms from Solid Waste

Hummerick

Strayer

McCoy

et al. 2013

43rd International Conference on Environmental Systems

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One of the technologies being tested at Ames Research Center as part of the logistics and repurposing project is heat melt compaction (HMC) of solid waste to reduce volume, remove water and render a biologically stable and safe product. Studies at Kennedy Space Center have focused on the efficacy of the heat melt compaction process for killing microorganisms in waste and specific compacter operation protocols, i.e., time and temperature, required to achieve a sterile, stable product. The work reported here includes a controlled study to examine the survival and potential re-growth of specific microorganisms over a 6-month period of storage after heating and compaction. Before heating and compaction, ersatz solid wastes were inoculated with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, previously isolated from recovered space shuttle mission food and packaging waste. Compacted HMC tiles were sampled for microbiological analysis at time points between 0 and 180 days of storage in a controlled environment chamber. In addition, biological indicator strips containing spores of Bacillus atrophaeus and Ceo bacillus stearothermophilus were imbedded in trash to assess the efficacy of the HMC process to achieve sterilization. Analysis of several tiles compacted at 180°C for times of 40 minutes to over 2 hours detected organisms in all tile samples with the exception of one exposed to 180° C for approximately 2 hours. Neither of the inoculated organisms was recovered, and the biological indicator strips were negative for growth in all tiles indicating at least local sterilization of tile areas. The findings suggest that minimum time/temperature combination is required for complete sterilization. Microbial analysis of tiles processed at lower temperatures from 130°C-150°C at varying times will be discussed, as well as analysis of the bacteria and fungi present on the compactor hardware as a result of exposure to the waste and the surrounding environment. The two organisms inoculated into the waste were among those isolated and identified from the HMC surfaces indicating the possibility of cross contamination.

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Brine Evaporation Bag Design Concept and Initial Test Results

Delzeit

Fisher

Pace

et al. 2012

42nd International Conference on Environmental Systems

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Development of the Heat Melt Compactor for Waste Management during Long Duration Human Space Missions

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Guiding Requirements for Designing Life Support System Architectures for Crewed Exploration Missions Beyond Low-Earth Orbit

Guiding Requirements for Designing Life Support System Architectures for Crewed Exploration Missions Beyond Low-Earth Orbit

Heat Melt Compaction as an Effective Treatment for Eliminating Microorganisms from Solid Waste

Brine Evaporation Bag Design Concept and Initial Test Results

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