Abstract Due to the difficulty and expense it costs to resupply manned-spacecraft habitats, a goal is to create a closed loop atmosphere revitalization system, in which precious commodities such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water are continuously recycled. Our aim is to test other sorbents for their capacity for future spacecraft missions, such as on the Orion spacecraft, or possibly lunar or Mars mission habitats to see if they would be better than the zeolite sorbents on the 4-bed molecular sieve. Some of the materials being tested are currently used for other industry applications. Studying these sorbents for their specific spacecraft application is different from that for applications on earth because in space, there are certain power, mass, and volume limitations that are not as critical on Earth. In manned-spaceflight missions, the sorbents are exposed to a much lower volume fraction of CO2 (0.6% volume CO2) than on Earth. LiLSX was tested for its CO2 capacity in an atmosphere like that of the ISS. Breakthrough tests were run to establish the capacities of these materials at a partial pressure of CO2 that is seen on the ISS. This paper discusses experimental results from benchmark materials, such as results previously obtained from tests on Grade 522, and the forementioned candidate materials for the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) system.
Highlights ► Carbon dioxide must be captured for manned-spaceflight missions. ► Standard and novel candidates for carbon dioxide capture in space were tested. ► Zeolite LiLSX has greater capacity for CO2 than 5A at 2.5 and 5Torr CO2. ► LiLSX and 5A have similar mass transfer kinetics based on breakthrough curves.
Carbon dioxide removal system for closed loop atmosphere revitalization, candidate sorbents screening and test results
Acta Astronautica ; 86 ; 39-46
2012-09-24
8 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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