High Efficiency, High Output Plastic Melt Waste Compactor (HEHO-PMWC)

The innovative High Efficiency, High Output Plastic Melt Waste Compactor (HEHO-PMWC) is a trash dewatering and volume reduction system that uses heat melt compaction to remove nearly 100% of water from trash and reduce the volume by up to 11 times. The HEHO-PMWC system incorporates novel methods to compress the trash, recover water, and remove the resultant plastic tiles. This system requires access to power, data, and cooling interfaces. The system is suitable for recovering water and compacting all trash sources on the ISS. The system has also been designed to recover water from brine solutions produced by primary wastewater processing systems. The HEHO-PMWC works by heating and compressing trash simultaneously to first remove water and then to melt plastic in the trash. The melted plastic encapsulates the trash into a 16 inch square tile, approximately ½ inch thick. The square tile is easier to store than a round tile and is a more effective radiation shield. Variables such as transport vehicle availability, ISS mass, power and space availability, and ISS cooling capabilities were considered. The resulting HEHO-PWMC system, proposed here, was sized to process 3-4 kg of trash per batch while operating three times per day.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.