Hydrogen Plasma Reduction of Lunar Regolith for Oxygen Liberation

A hydrogen plasma could be used to reduce the silicates from regolith. Instead of using energy to heat the entire bed of regolith, the energy used by the plasma system would be imparted into the hydrogen gas, forming highly energetic ions, electrons, and neutrals that would interact with the regolith surface. Lunar regolith is composed of 40% oxygen bound in minerals composed primarily of silicates with aluminum, magnesium, and calcium oxide and ions in the matrix. The bonds holding the oxygen within the mineral structure are very strong and require high temperatures, large amounts of energy, or strong reducing agents to separate the valuable oxygen from the regolith. This study will use a low-power (100 Watts), low pressure, enclosed radiofrequency (RF) plasma system and a higher-power (up to 500 Watts), sub-atmospheric to atmospheric pressure, plasma torch (Thermal Plasma Torch) to examine the efficacy of the two plasma systems to reduce lunar regolith simulant and determine the kinetics of the reaction for the first time. The project will also use a modeling program to model the process and predict plasma behavior at different operating conditions. In the proposed process, a gas stream of hydrogen will be excited either in the RF plasma system or by the Thermal Plasma Torch, both of which have already been procured and are available for this project. During the reaction, an optical emission spectrometer will gather information to characterize the hydrogen plasma, and following the reaction, the lunar regolith simulant will be analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) to determine the extent of reaction and oxygen removal. The information will then be used to characterize the reaction and validate the reaction model. Key Performance Parameters Confirm removal of oxygen from regolith simulant below 900°C local temperature Meet oxygen removal efficiencies Threshold: 1% (0.01 goxygen/gregolith) in one hour Goal: 12% (0.12 goxygen/gregolith) in one hour to show comparable performance to SOTA, Carbothermal

Very little work has been done on the reduction of silicates using hydrogen plasma. Hydrogen plasma has been examined to reduce other metal oxides: Tungsten, Iron, and Copper.

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.

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