Artículo
A five-stage treatment train for water recovery from urine and shower water for long-term human Space missions
Autor/es | Lindeboom, R.E.F.
De Paepe, J. Vanoppen, M. Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé Coessens, W. Alloul, A. Christiaens, M.E.R. Dotremont, C. Beckers, H. |
Departamento | Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Ambiental |
Fecha de publicación | 2020 |
Fecha de depósito | 2020-10-21 |
Publicado en |
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Resumen | Long-term human Space missions will rely on regenerative life support as resupply of water, oxygen and food comes with constraints. The International Space Station (ISS) relies on an evaporation/condensation system to ... Long-term human Space missions will rely on regenerative life support as resupply of water, oxygen and food comes with constraints. The International Space Station (ISS) relies on an evaporation/condensation system to recover 74–85% of the water in urine, yet suffers from repetitive scaling and biofouling while employing ha-zardous chemicals. In this study, an alternative non-sanitary five-stage treatment train for one “astronaut” was integrated through a sophisticated monitoring and control system. This so-called Water Treatment Unit Breadboard (WTUB) successfully treated urine (1.2-L-d−1) with crystallisation, COD-removal, ammonification, nitrification and electrodialysis, before it was mixed with shower water (3.4-L-d−1). Subsequently, ceramic nanofiltration and single-pass flat-sheet RO were used. A four-months proof-of-concept period yielded: (i) chemical water quality meeting the hygienic standards of the European Space Agency, (ii) a 87- ± -5% permeate recovery with an estimated theoretical primary energy requirement of 0.2-kWhp-L−1, (iii) reduced scaling po-tential without anti-scalant addition and (iv) and a significant biological reduction in biofouling potential re-sulted in stable but biofouling-limited RO permeability of 0.5 L-m−2-h−1-bar−1. Estimated mass breakeven dates and a comparison with the ISS Water Recovery System for a hypothetical Mars transit mission show that WTUB is a promising biological membrane-based alternative to heat-based systems for manned Space missions. |
Identificador del proyecto | 4000109518/13 / NL / JC
PP2015-4634 / VPPI y CAS15_0021 |
Cita | Lindeboom, R.E.F., De Paepe, J., Vanoppen, M., Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé, Coessens, W., Alloul, A.,...,Beckers, H. (2020). A five-stage treatment train for water recovery from urine and shower water for long-term human Space missions. Desalination, 495 (114634), 1-9. |
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DES_2020_Alonso_Fariñas_A five.pdf | 3.753Mb | [PDF] | Ver/ | |