NASA EPSCoR: Design of Novel Polymeric Membranes and Responsive Molecules for CO2 Removal and Water Reclamation in Future Long-Term Missions: A Computational and Experimental Approach

Water is an essential component aboard a spacecraft; it is important for consumption, adequate health, and sanitation of the crewmembers. During long-term space missions, the sources to reclaim water are humidity condensate, hygiene wastewater and human waste (mainly urine). Due to elevated costs of delivering supplies to space, the recovery of potable water from spacecraft wastewater is critical for life support of the crewmembers. On the other hand, excess carbon dioxide (CO2) exhaled from crewmembers is often considered a waste, that must be vented out of the cabin. Thus, water recovery and air revitalization systems are amongst the most massive and important sub-systems aboard spaceships. Therefore, finding ways to enhance the general performance of such systems is of utmost importance for the future of the space program.

This proposal is directly responsive to the goals of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (NASA Space Taxonomy Roadmap Area, TA06). In this research we explore on the development of integrated (i.e. dual-function) technologies for the purification of wastewater while removing the CO2 from the cabin during the same process. The general motivation for this project lies on reports from the NASA-Advanced Life Support Systems Division (NASA ALS) highlighting that the main objective to fulfill sustainability in future space missions is “to develop fully regenerative integrated system technologies that provide air, water and resource recovery from wastes”.

Efforts at the NASA Ames Research Center are currently geared towards the use of membrane-based water purification systems that are passive and thus provide for low-energy consumption, such as forward osmosis (FO). The driving force in the FO process is a gradient in osmotic potential generated by the presence of ionic species in the draw solution. The overall efficiency of the FO process is dictated by the selection of the membrane and the draw solute (ionic species capable of generate a high osmotic potential). As a strategy to enhance the FO process and complement NASA’s efforts in these areas of water reclamation and CO2 removal, herein we propose a technology based on the purification of wastewater by means of a passive system (i.e. FO), while using a CO2-responsive switchable polarity solvent (SPS) as draw solute. This dual-function system of water purification integrated to CO2 removal technologies will provide the portability, reliability, and accuracy needed to achieve resource recovery during future space flight missions.

The main objective of the proposed project is to gain insights and to explore on the integration of wastewater reclamation and CO2 removal dual system in order to obtain potable water while removing a “waste” from the cabin environment. In general, the proposed project seeks to chemically synthesize a new class of CO2-responsive SPS and novel polymeric membranes that would account for an efficient SPS-FO integrated system. Our hypotheses are mainly under TRL 1 to 4 research work due the fundamental research questions that will be unveiled and tested via computational analyses and under laboratory environment.

This research is innovative as it will address efforts to couple functionalized polymeric membranes for the water purification process along with amine-based SPS that were not previously accounted for spacecrafts application. The results of this investigation will shed light on the development of integrated systems to address water recovery while minimizing the amount of released CO2. The broader impact of the current effort is supported on the disclosure of knowledge to both the scientific community and general public and commercialization.

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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