TY - GEN
T1 - Performance of a TRL 5 bioreactor for pretreatment of an extended habitation wastestream
AU - Jackson, W. Andrew
AU - Christenson, Dylan
AU - Kubista, Kyle
AU - Morse, Audra
AU - Morse, Stephen
AU - Vercellino, Tony
AU - Wilson, Dannia
AU - Garland, Jay L.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Water is one of the most critical and costly life support elements, even under the most stringent water use approaches. Technologies that can increase the sustainability of water processing by reducing expendables and helping to close the water loop can have large impacts on mission costs. Current technologies for water processing are intensive users of resources, including power for processes such as distillation, and consumables for pre- and post-treatment. In particular, urine pre-processing requires the continuous consumption of hazardous and corrosive chemicals. Further, current recovery rates are limited partly by the chemical pre-processing, and the brine produced from this pre-treated chemical is challenging to process. Biological pre-treatment may offer substantial efficiencies over traditional technologies, and offer secondary benefits with only minor costs. For the past 9 months, we have operated a TRL 5 membrane aerated bioreactor processing an extended habitation waste stream (urine/hygiene/humidity condensate). The reactor has successfully processed the wastewater at loading rates of 20 L/d and 30 L/d and is currently being challenged at 40 L/d. The reactor has exceeded 70% NH4+ conversion, 86% DOC conversion, 55% TN reduction, and maintained a pH < 7. Conversion rates for NH4+ and DOC are approaching 1 g/m2-d. Finally, preliminary gas phase measurements reveal that the total O2 consumption is ~100 g/d, while CO2 production was ~ 4g/d and N2 production was estimated at 20 g/d (~13 L/d).
AB - Water is one of the most critical and costly life support elements, even under the most stringent water use approaches. Technologies that can increase the sustainability of water processing by reducing expendables and helping to close the water loop can have large impacts on mission costs. Current technologies for water processing are intensive users of resources, including power for processes such as distillation, and consumables for pre- and post-treatment. In particular, urine pre-processing requires the continuous consumption of hazardous and corrosive chemicals. Further, current recovery rates are limited partly by the chemical pre-processing, and the brine produced from this pre-treated chemical is challenging to process. Biological pre-treatment may offer substantial efficiencies over traditional technologies, and offer secondary benefits with only minor costs. For the past 9 months, we have operated a TRL 5 membrane aerated bioreactor processing an extended habitation waste stream (urine/hygiene/humidity condensate). The reactor has successfully processed the wastewater at loading rates of 20 L/d and 30 L/d and is currently being challenged at 40 L/d. The reactor has exceeded 70% NH4+ conversion, 86% DOC conversion, 55% TN reduction, and maintained a pH < 7. Conversion rates for NH4+ and DOC are approaching 1 g/m2-d. Finally, preliminary gas phase measurements reveal that the total O2 consumption is ~100 g/d, while CO2 production was ~ 4g/d and N2 production was estimated at 20 g/d (~13 L/d).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84881306272&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84881306272
SN - 9781600869488
T3 - 41st International Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, ICES 2011
BT - 41st International Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, ICES 2011
T2 - 41st International Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, ICES 2011
Y2 - 17 July 2011 through 21 July 2011
ER -