Water Recovery from Wastes in Space Habitats-a Comparative Evaluation of SBIR Prototypes

Fisher, John W.; Hogan, John A.; Delzeit, Lance; Wignarajah, Kanapathipillai; Alba, Ric; Pace, Gregory; Fox, Thomas

doi:10.4271/2009-01-2342

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A number of small business innovative research (SBIR) prototype hardware for dewatering and processing of wastes and brines has been delivered to Ames Research Center (ARC). The functioning of this hardware has been documented in detail by Fisher et al [1] . Considerable "shake-down" testing of the hardware to process solid wastes and brines has been carried out and reported in previous ICES conferences [1,6,7,8,9,10,11] .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The functioning of this hardware has been documented in detail by Fisher et al [1] . Considerable "shake-down" testing of the hardware to process solid wastes and brines has been carried out and reported in previous ICES conferences [1,6,7,8,9,10,11] .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a lunar habitat, energy does not appear to be the major driving factor amongst the technologies studied. Instead, reliability appears to be more important [1] . This paper reports studies to date on drying technologies to remove water from solid wastes and brines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Drying Technologies for Resource Recovery from Solid Wastes and Brines

Wignarajah

Alba

Fisher

et al. 2010

40th International Conference on Environmental Systems

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Drying Technologies for Resource Recovery from Solid Wastes and Brines

Wignarajah

Alba

Fisher

et al. 2010

40th International Conference on Environmental Systems

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“…It has been estimated that a four-person crew would discard an average of 1 kg day -1 of water in their trash 1 . For long duration missions where resupply is not possible, such as the planned rendezvous with an asteroid or future Mars landing, recovery of this water would reduce payload mass and associated lift costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of a Closed-loop, Forced-convection, Heat-pump Drying System for Space Operations

Arquiza

Hunter

Weinschenk

et al. 2011

41st International Conference on Environmental Systems

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Humans living in space generate wet trash which includes food residues, moist hygiene wipes and wet paper towels. For long-term space missions, these wastes must be treated to control microbial growth and avoid associated health hazards. Recovery of water in the trash will also reduce payload mass and resulting lift costs. These problems are solved by a closed-loop, forced-convection, heat-pump drying system which stops microbial activity by both pasteurization and desiccation, and recovers moisture in a gravity-independent porous media condensing heat exchanger. A computational model of the system consisting of the air heater, dryer vessel, condenser, and thermoelectric heat-pump coolers has been developed. The simulation uses a bypass factor to model drying efficiency and to predict the properties of the humid air leaving the drying vessel. The conservation equations for mass, energy, and fluid flow were applied to the condenser to give a system of partial differential equations that was solved numerically by the finite element method. The thermodynamic efficiency and power load of the thermoelectric cooler and heaters were computed for different dryer and condenser conditions. Simulation values were compared with experimental data to validate the model for various operating conditions at sea-level pressure and unit gravity. The model predicts the system performance, energy use per unit of recovered water, and effectiveness of enthalpy recovery options. This can be used to optimize the performance of the drying system for various space habitat conditions. NomenclatureC p,ave = average heat capacity of moist air c v = concentration of water vapor D v = mass diffusivity of water vapor g = acceleration due to gravity H = humidity ratio k ,ave = average thermal conductivity of moist air p = total pressure R = universal gas constant T = temperature T in = temperature of moist air entering condenser T plate = temperature at surface of plate u = x-component of velocity v = y-component of velocity v in = inlet velocity  = density  = viscosity

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