A cyclic adsorption process simulator was used to determine preliminary bed size and characteristics for a sorbent-based atmosphere revitalization (SBAR) system being designed by NASA for the Crew Exploration Vehicle. An initial study of a 2-bed 3-step 3-layer, vacuum swing adsorption cycle, utilizing 50% silica gel, 17% 13X zeolite, and 33% 5A zeolite revealed that a 10 L bed could easily meet the CO2 and H2 O removal criteria for a 3 person crew. A parametric study showed that the cycle time, layering percentage of silica gel, and H2 O-silica gel mass transfer coefficient were important parameters in the SBAR design. Increasing the cycle time diminished the CO2 and H2 O removal performances but resulted in less O2 lost to space. The CO2 and H2 O removal performances increased considerably when a silica gel layer was added to the bed, with the above layering percentages being close to optimum. As more silica gel was added to the bed slightly more O2 was lost. Larger values of the H2 O-silica gel mass transfer coefficient improved the CO2 and H2 O removal performances but at the expense of slightly more O2 lost.


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    Title :

    Mathematical Simulation of the Sorbent-Based Atmosphere Revitalization System for the Crew Exploration Vehicle


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Conference On Environmental Systems ; 2006



    Publication date :

    2006-07-17




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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