ALBERT

Description: This next Generation Life Support Project entails the development and demonstration of Bosch reaction technologies to improve oxygen recovery from metabolically generated oxygen and/or space environments. A primary focus was placed on alternate carbon formation reactor concepts to improve useful catalyst life for space vehicle applications, and make use of in situ catalyst resources for non-terrestrial surface missions. Current state-of-the-art oxygen recovery systems onboard the International Space Station are able to effectively recover approximately 45 percent of the oxygen consumed by humans and exhausted in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Excess CO2 is vented overboard and the oxygen contained in the molecules is lost. For long-duration missions beyond the reaches of Earth for resupply, it will be necessary to recover greater amounts of constituents such as oxygen that are necessary for sustaining life. Bosch technologies theoretically recover 100 percent of the oxygen from CO2, producing pure carbon as the sole waste product. Challenges with this technology revolve around the carbon product fouling catalyst materials, drastically limiting catalyst life. This project successfully demonstrated techniques to extend catalyst surface area exposure times to improve catalyst life for vehicle applications, and demonstrated the use of Martian and lunar regolith as viable catalyst Bosch Reactor Development for High Percentage Oxygen Recovery From Carbon Dioxide materials for surface missions. The Bosch process generates carbon nanotube formation within the regolith, which has been shown to improve mechanical properties of building materials. Production of bricks from post reaction regolith for building and radiation shielding applications were also explored.

Description: The Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA) on the International Space Station (ISS) has been operational since 2010. The CRA uses a Sabatier reactor to produce water and methane by reaction of the metabolic CO2 scrubbed from the cabin air and the hydrogen byproduct from the water electrolysis system used for metabolic oxygen generation. Incorporating the CRA into the overall air revitalization system has facilitated life support system loop closure on the ISS reducing resupply logistics and thereby enhancing longer term missions. The CRA utilizes CO2 which has been adsorbed in a 5A molecular sieve within the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly, CDRA. There is a potential of compounds with molecular dimensions similar to, or less than CO2 to also be adsorbed. In this fashion trace contaminants may be concentrated within the CDRA and subsequently desorbed with the CO2 to the CRA. Currently, there is no provision to remove contaminants prior to entering the Sabatier catalyst bed. The risk associated with this is potential catalyst degradation due to trace organic contaminants in the CRA carbon dioxide feed acting as catalyst poisons. To better understand this risk, United Technologies Aerospace System (UTAS) has teamed with MSFC to investigate the impact of various trace contaminants on the CRA catalyst performance at relative ISS cabin air concentrations and at about 200/400 times of ISS concentrations, representative of the potential concentrating effect of the CDRA molecular sieve. This paper summarizes our initial assessment results.