NASA, other governments' space agencies, and some commercial entities are pursuing a long-term goal to develop process systems to produce liquefied H2 and O2 propellants from available lunar ice deposits. H2/O2 propellant made from ice in lunar permanently-shadowed regions (PSRs) will enable missions in cislunar space and secondary cislunar launches to further destinations. System balance-of-plant optimization to minimize mass, energy requirements, and life cycle costs can facilitate designs for reliable long-term operation in the extreme environments of PSRs. OxEon Energy and Colorado School of Mines are designing, testing, and developing an integrated steam electrolysis system for production of propellant in a lunar environment. Using OxEon's high-temperature, solid-oxide electrolysis (SOXE) technology, the system simultaneously produces separated streams of H2 and O2 and compresses the O2 electrochemically to facilitate smaller heat recuperators and passive O2 liquification in the PSR, thereby eliminating the need for high-maintenance, mechanical compression. In this study, Mines and OxEon have focused optimization on a lab-scale demonstration system by developing integrated component models in MATLAB utilizing the Cantera thermochemical toolbox to simulate performance of the electrolyzer stack, steam compressor, and heat exchangers as a function of operating conditions using 0-D and 1-D flow path models. The integrated system model has been applied in an optimization algorithm to minimize system specific work input, specific dry mass, and/or estimated cost per mass unit of fuel production. Optimization for a lab-scale demonstration system, which included impacts of downstream cryogenic cooling processes for LH2 and LO2 production, determined that operating conditions with high-steam generation pressures (~1 bar), low steam compression ratios, and high SOXE stack H2O utilizations (> 90%) minimize system specific work and cost per mass unit of H2 produced. Results from these optimization studies have informed a system design for fabrication and testing in a Mines cryo-vacuum chamber. Further system analysis and optimization will determine how a flight-worthy system fits within NASA plans for full-scale liquid propellant production in a lunar PSR, taking icy regolith extraction and cryogenic storage into account.


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    Titel :

    Optimization of an Electrolysis System for Production of Rocket Fuel from Lunar Ice


    Beteiligte:
    Dickson, David (Autor:in) / Hartvigsen, Joseph (Autor:in) / Dreyer, Christopher (Autor:in) / Curran, David (Autor:in) / Hollist, Michele (Autor:in) / Jackson, Grcgory (Autor:in) / Sowers, George (Autor:in)


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2021-03-06


    Format / Umfang :

    9058226 byte




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch



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