Center Innovation Fund: JSC CIF
Coiled Brine Recovery Assembly, Year 1 (CoBRA)
Project Description
The Coiled Brine Recovery Assembly (CoBRA) project will result in a proof-of-concept demonstration for a lightweight, compact, affordable, regenerable and disposable solution to brine water recovery. The heart of CoBRA is an evaporator that produces water vapor from brine. This evaporator leverages a novel design that enables passive transport of brine from place to place within the system. While it will be necessary to build or modify a system for testing the CoBRA concept, the emphasis of this project will be on developing the evaporator itself. This project will utilize a "test early, test often" approach, building at least one trial evaporator to guide the design of the final product. Brine water recovery is the final link in achieving closure of the water loop. It's a game-changer; if mastered, a technology gap is closed in providing a water supply for manned deep-space exploration missions. It is a challenging problem, however. When wastewater brines are dried, the residual is inevitably a viscous goo, laden with particles of precipitated solids. This brine residual causes problems for traditional recovery systems: clogging Pitot tubes, causing bearings to seize, fouling heat transfer surfaces. The key feature of CoBRA that makes it a reliable life support technology is its passive technique for transporting brine and brine residual in microgravity. This technique prevents sensitive components, such as those aforementioned in traditional systems, from coming into contact with brine and brine residual. Instead of fighting brine residual, the Coiled Brine Recovery Assembly (CoBRA) system embraces it.
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Anticipated Benefits
After the Coiled Brine Recovery Assembly (CoBRA} undergoes necessary further development, the technology could be integrated into the International Space Station (ISS) life support system as a brine processor. This has the potential to recover 575 pounds of water per year from brine. This represents roughly $10M per year in savings on water resupply costs. While the primary function of the CoBRA is to recover water from concentrated wastewater brines generated by a primary processor, the CoBRA may be able to function as a primary processor itself. Current state-of-the-art primary processors rely on rotating drums, pitot pumps, lobe compressors, and other sensitive machinery for operation. This equipment has a history of becoming fouled due to solids precipitation. In the case of a failure of the primary processor, the CoBRA could serve as a backup, providing dissimilar redundancy to ensure crew survival. Upon successful demonstration of a proof-of-concept evaporator, Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) will provide funding for further development. This will lead to infusion of CoBRA technology into an integrated closed-loop life support system architecture. The CoBRA will then be poised to play a key role in a future ground-based integrated life support systems test, and an eventual ISS detailed test objective (DTO). After a successful DTO, CoBRA could be integrated into the International Space Station (ISS) life support system, with the potential to recover 575 pounds of water per year from brine. This represents roughly $10M per year in savings on water resupply costs. Leveraging the extensive technology maturation and testing accomplished through a DTO, the CoBRA will then be ready for use by future deep-space exploration programs. Coiled Brine Recovery Assembly (CoBRA) technology also has the potential to be used for water recovery from contaminated wastes in the chemical, nuclear, and hydraulic fracturing industries.
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Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Johnson Space Center
(JSC)
|
Lead Organization | NASA Center | Houston, Texas |
Ames Research Center
(ARC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Moffett Field, California |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
California
-
Texas
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