Browsing by Author "Brom, Nicholas"
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Item Chemical Vapor Deposition Methane Pyrolysis Enables Closed-Loop Oxygen Recovery: Reducing System Consumables(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Childers, Amanda; Yates, Stephen; Brom, Nicholas; Skomurski, SeanFuture deep-space long-duration human exploration missions to Mars will require advanced oxygen recovery methods. Honeywell Aerospace is developing a methane pyrolysis technology for NASA that would recover hydrogen from the methane generated by the Sabatier unit currently used to reduce removed carbon dioxide. Complete pyrolysis of this methane to carbon increases the overall system oxygen recovery to almost 100%, while leveraging Sabatier technology. Additionally, by using high-surface area carbon capture fiber substrates, the waste carbon is non-sooty and easily handled � a technology differentiator that is vital for microgravity applications. While the fibrous substrate materials enable this performance, they also present an opportunity for continued optimization as flight implementation is considered; for a 1000-day mission, the mass of the current consumable substrates represents more than 2/3 the mass of the entire system. Minimizing the fiber volume fraction, while still ensuring non-sooty carbon deposition from methane, and maximizing substrate utilization will reduce starting mass and provide higher loading capacity, greatly reducing the overall mass and volume of the required consumable. Experimental work and alternative substrate materials have been used to identify consumable mass entitlement for enabling a fully closed-loop oxygen recovery system.Item Hydrogen Recovery by Methane Pyrolysis to Elemental Carbon(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Yates, Stephen; Childers, Amanda; Brom, Nicholas; Lo, Charles; Skomurski, Sean; Abney, MorganUse of a Sabatier reactor to recover the oxygen from the carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew on the International Space Station has been limited by the loss of the hydrogen contained in the methane it generates. Maximizing the oxygen recovered requires the hydrogen to be recovered from the methane product and recycled back to the Sabatier reactor. We describe the use of a tailored methane pyrolysis reactor to completely recover this hydrogen. The carbon-containing byproduct is elemental carbon, which is generated in the form of easily handled, non-sooty material that may have various uses. The effects of byproducts on Sabatier recycling was evaluated by test and compared with models based on similar catalyst material. The process of creating this tailored carbon vapor deposition process involved exploration of the effects of temperature, pressure, substrate design and other variables to develop a high yield process that cleanly generates the desired products. Reaction kinetics and kinetics modelling were used to specify the temperature, pressure and reactor volume required to achieve the target conversion and to assure that the final average density was as high as possible. Reactor design included the selection of materials that will survive the high temperatures and environment in the pyrolysis reactor, and thermal modeling to achieve the required temperatures with minimum power consumption. The successful construction and demonstration of a brassboard prototype will allow the results of the chemical, thermal and mechanical models to be validated and should provide a useful alternative for a completely closed loop ECLS system. Integration of this technology with state-of-the-art (SOA) Sabatier hardware on ISS requires a complete understanding of the effects of impurities in the product hydrogen on the Sabatier catalyst. SOA Sabatier catalyst was evaluated over short and long-term exposure to anticipated contaminants to identify effects.