Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Advanced Wastewater Photo-oxidation System
Project Description
Pioneer Astronautics proposes an advanced photocatalytic oxidation reactor for enhancing the reliability and performance of Water Recovery Post Processing systems aboard crewed spacecraft. This novel technology, called the Advanced Wastewater Photooxidation System (AWPS) is designed to oxidize and remove recalcitrant aqueous organic constituents in the water recovery post processing system under ambient temperature and pressure conditions. The basis of the innovation is the combination of high brightness and long lifetime UV LED light sources with efficient geometric illumination of a highly active photocatalyst immobilized on a high surface area support. This combined approach leads to numerous performance benefits including high conversion efficiency, low temperature and pressure operation, compact footprint, high reliability and low crew maintenance, and decreased equivalent system mass (ESM). The Phase I effort will clearly demonstrate the feasibility of these concepts by mineralization of polar water soluble organics and organosilanol constituents under long duration testing. Data from the Phase I will lead to a prototype scale-up of the device in Phase II. Development strategies for the Phase II device include component design verification testing and determining optimum reaction conditions. Long duration performance tests will validate the reactor design, and establish the technology applications in space and commercial markets.
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Anticipated Benefits
This technology applies to any system where removal of toxic industrial chemicals and pathogens are present in water, and where robust, reliable operation with minimal supply logistics is required. The primary application of the AWPS is to provide a compact, high performance wastewater purification device for spacecraft environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) for extending NASA's mission beyond low earth orbit to include long-duration space habitation, Lunar, and Mars colonization missions. This is accomplished by the advanced AWPS device which combines energy efficient UV LED-based source illumination, high photon utilization, highly active photocatalysts, high reactor surface-to volume, in situ reactant use, and low temperature and pressure operation.
The technology has numerous applications in municipal water treatment and commercial sectors including pharmaceuticals, food processing, cosmetics, electronics, oil and gas industries, and hospitals. Other government agencies such as the Department of Defense and First Responders would benefit from this technology as a portable water treatment technology against chemical and biological pathogens. The AWPS technology is well suited for the growing market demand of wastewater equipment and is poised to solve a variety of industrial water treatment challenges with minimal environmental impact. The AWPS technology is composed of entirely green chemistry- just light, iron oxide, and environmentally friendly on-site generation of hydrogen peroxide. This technology leads to the facile generation of hydroxyl radical chemistry, which is vital to the complete destruction of industrial chemicals in water. No addition of chlorine is needed and therefore deleterious chlorine byproducts are not generated. More »
The technology has numerous applications in municipal water treatment and commercial sectors including pharmaceuticals, food processing, cosmetics, electronics, oil and gas industries, and hospitals. Other government agencies such as the Department of Defense and First Responders would benefit from this technology as a portable water treatment technology against chemical and biological pathogens. The AWPS technology is well suited for the growing market demand of wastewater equipment and is poised to solve a variety of industrial water treatment challenges with minimal environmental impact. The AWPS technology is composed of entirely green chemistry- just light, iron oxide, and environmentally friendly on-site generation of hydrogen peroxide. This technology leads to the facile generation of hydroxyl radical chemistry, which is vital to the complete destruction of industrial chemicals in water. No addition of chlorine is needed and therefore deleterious chlorine byproducts are not generated. More »
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Astronautics | Lead Organization | Industry | Lakewood, Colorado |
Ames Research Center
(ARC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Moffett Field, California |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
California
-
Colorado
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