Water Recovery of Reverse Osmosis Brine and Pretreated Urine with an Air Evaporation Subsystem

This paper focuses on an Air Evaporation Subsystem component of the Water Recovery System being developed at the Johnson Space Center in the Crew and Thermal Systems Division. Specifically, the focus is on the design and testing of the next generation of Air Evaporation Subsystem Engineering Development Unit built after the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project Phase III 91day test. The primary objective of testing this next generation Air Evaporation Subsystem was to demonstrate its performance as a Reverse Osmosis brine treatment subsystem by looking at the condensate quality produced from Reverse Osmosis brine and the power required to process the Reverse Osmosis brine. The secondary objectives were to develop optimal operating conditions, to optimize the use of a consumable wick and to retain as much operational data as possible through instrumentation. During the evaluation of the Air Evaporation Subsystem as a Reverse Osmosis brine recovery subsystem the need arose to obtain operational data of the Air Evaporation Subsystem as a urine treatment subsystem in support of the ISS Node 3 Dual Path Advanced ECLSS work. Operational data on the Air Evaporation Subsystem as a Reverse Osmosis brine recovery subsystem and as a Urine Treatment Subsystem was obtained showing improvement over the previous generation Air Evaporation Subsystem in power consumption while supplying condensate within the water quality requirements for a post-processor subsystem.