Water Reclamation using Spray Drying, Phase II

This purpose of this project is to develop a spray drying prototype to for the recovery and recycle of water from concentrated waste water recovery system brine. Spray drying is a one step, continuous process where a solution, slurry, sludge or paste is transformed into a dry solid and clean water.

Potential applications are brine dewatering, water recovery in life support systems for: the international space station, the Lunar surface, Mars transit and Mars surface missions. Additionally, spray drying can be used for the drying of high-solids-content moist matterSpray drying is well suited for the single step drying of liquid solutions or suspensions to a dry free solid while producing clean recovered water. A system of modest size can also serve as a backup unit or alternative for other water recovery processors. Innovations in control and efficiency will be find applications in the production of pharmaceuticals. The focus on water recovery will draw interest from the chemical manufacturing and advanced materials industries. Spray drying is a promising technique allow for the optimization of precursor production to produce highest quality nanomaterials at the fraction of the current cost thus enabling many nanomaterial applications

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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.