Sublimation Water Recovery and Applications to Space Flight

We examined the application of lyophilization (freeze drying) to the recovery of water from solid wastes of the type generated during manned space flight using an array of real and simulated materials. By measuring the concentration of solutes in recovered water from samples congaing inorganic salts we found that non volatile inorganic ions are essentially removed but volatile species, present or subsequently formed, did pass through our system. The physio-mechanical properties of solids residues are primarily a function of the amount of water in the influent. As expected wastes bearing high amount of solids (>30 %) form stiff integral structures while those having low solids (<15%) are easily pulverized.