Urine Processing for Water Recovery via Freeze Concentration

Abstract

Resource recovery, including that of urine water extraction, is one of the most crucial aspects of long-term life support in interplanetary space travel. This paper will consequently examine an innovative approach to processing raw, undiluted urine based on low-temperature freezing. This strategy is uniquely different from NASA's current emphasis on either 'integrated' (co-treatment of mixed urine, grey, and condensate waters) or 'high temperature' (i.e., VCD [vapor compression distillation] or VPCAR [vapor phase catalytic ammonia removal]) processing strategies, whereby this liquid freeze-thaw (LiFT) procedure would avoid both chemical and microbial cross-contamination concerns while at the same time securing highly desirable reductions in likely ESM levels. The involved freeze concentration methodology is a low energy process that focuses on the nucleation of pure ice crystals followed by a ripening effect of those crystals and subsequent washing to achieve high extraction efficiencies. A theoretical water recovery value of approximately 88% has been determined based on the eutectic points of the expected urine constituents. Overall, this research paper will focus on several aspects of freeze concentration, including an overview of the basic technology and its various pragmatic applications, as well as a theoretical comparison of model percent recovery rates relative to observed experimental operational values. Detailed testing results will also be presented to confirm the observed low-level migration of inorganic, organic, and biological contaminants into the product water.

Comments

Presented at International Conference On Environmental Systems, July 2005, Rome, ITALY, Session: Physico-Chemical Life Support Process Development III

Date of this Version

July 2005

Identifier

ALS-NSCORT: p46

Publisher Identifier:

SAE Document Number: 2005-01-3032

Publisher

SAE International

ALS NSCORT Project Number

Project 3 - Liquid Freeze Thaw (LiFT)

Project Lead

James E. Alleman

Language

English

ALS NSCORT Series

Published Materials

Administrative Contact

Dave Kotterman, dkotter@purdue.edu

Rights

Copyright 2005 SAE International. For additional information please visit the intellectual property section of the publisher's website: http://www.sae.org/about/intelproperty/ or the publisher's home page at: http://www.sae.org

Access

This article is not available through e-pubs. To purchase a copy of this article visit: http://www.sae.org/technical/papers/2005-01-3032. This article is available on CD-ROM at Purdue University's Engineering Library.

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