Waste Incineration for Resource Recovery in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems

Over the last three years, the University of Utah (UofU), NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), and Reaction Engineering International (REI) have been developing an incineration system for the regeneration of components in waste materials for long-term life support systems. The system includes a fluidized bed combustor and a catalytic flue gas clean up system. An experimental version of the incinerator was built at the UofU. The incinerator was tested and modified at ARC and then operated during the Phase III human testing at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) during 1997. This paper presents the results of the work at the three locations: the design and testing at UofU, the testing and modification at ARC, and the integration and operation during the Phase III tests at JSC.