Browsing by Author "Fox, Eric"
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Item Ionic Liquid Parameter Prediction Leveraging Quantum Structure Property Relationships(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Woolever, Mitchell; Nabity, James; Cook, Ronald; Fox, EricU.S. Space Exploration Policy denotes the critical importance of establishing an outpost on the Moon to provide the foundation for human missions beyond cislunar space. However, launching spare components and systems from Earth will likely be cost prohibitive, so the single most important development that is required for enhancing, and in some cases enabling, sustained human presence on the Lunar surface is having the capability to extract metals, oxygen, and water from the Lunar regolith. Ionic Liquids (ILs) are noteworthy for their host of unique chemical properties: a relatively large temperature range in the liquid phase, negligible vapor pressures, thermal and chemical stability, wide voltage window, and many have low toxicity. Furthermore, their coupled organic and ionic nature make them excellent solvents for a wide range of materials. In particular, acidic ionic liquids show the potential to enhance oxygen and metals production from regolith via dissolution and electrolysis. Furthermore, given their organic composition, the physical and chemical properties of ILs can be fine-tuned by modifying their ion structures and combination. Relative abundance changes with sample location, but the principal metals of interest for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) in the Lunar regolith are iron, aluminum, magnesium, calcium, and titanium. However, an IL has yet to be identified that reliably dissolves titanium dioxide or silicon dioxide. Manufacturing and testing even a relatively small subset of the million theoretically stable IL anion/cation combinations for mineral digestion performance analysis is time and cost prohibitive. This paper will discuss a software process pipeline and corresponding analysis setpoints for a method to determine quantum structure property relationships (QSPR), which relate IL molecular structure to chemical function. Using QSPR, hundreds or even thousands of ILs could be assessed for efficacy in regolith ISRU and beyond.Item Scale-up of the Carbon Dioxide Removal by Ionic Liquid Sorbent (CDRILS) System(2019-07-07) Henson, Phoebe; Kamire, Rebecca; Yates, Stephen; Bonk, Ted; Loeffelholz, David; Zaki, Rehan; Fox, Eric; Kaukler, William; Henry, ChristopherThe Carbon Dioxide Removal by Ionic Liquid Sorbent (CDRILS) system is designed for efficient, safe and reliable carbon dioxide (CO2) removal from cabin air on long-duration missions to the Moon, deep space, and Mars. CDRILS integrates an ionic liquid sorbent with hollow fiber membrane contactors for rapid CO2 removal and recovery. The liquid-based system provides continuous CO2 delivery, which avoids complicated valve networks to switch between absorbing and desorbing beds and enables simpler integration to the Sabatier without the need for the CO2 Management System (CMS). Ionic liquids are particularly desirable as liquid absorbents for space applications since they are non-volatile, non-odorous, and have high oxidative stability. The hollow fiber membrane contactors offer both high contact area and rigorous containment between the gas and liquid phases in a microgravity environment. Scale-up of the CDRILS technology has presented a series of fascinating challenges, since the interaction between hollow fiber properties, ionic liquid properties and performance is complex. Properties measured with lab-scale hollow fiber contactors are used to estimate the performance of contactors that are similar in size and form factor to those to be used in flight-scale demonstrations. To accomplish this, component and system models have been built to relate the key scrubber and stripper design and operating variables with performance, and experiments directed to validate the models have been performed. System size, weight and power are all sensitive to component selection, arrangement, operating conditions and scaling. Reliability will be extremely important for any long-range mission and depends critically on the stability of the ionic liquids and of the scrubber and stripper contactors. We will report on our continuing long term stability experiments for the ionic liquid and contactor materials, and our investigation of the physical properties of additional ionic liquids.Item State of NASA Oxygen Recovery(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Greenwood, Zach; Abney, Morgan; Stanley, Christine; Brown, Brittany; Fox, EricLife support is a critical function of any crewed space vehicle or habitat. One of the key elements of life support is the provision of oxygen to the crew. For missions close to Earth oxygen may be resupplied from the ground but as we look at exploring further out into the solar system for longer periods of time oxygen recovery from metabolic CO2 becomes a priority to minimize resupply requirements and enable feasible mission architectures. For more than half a century NASA has perused the development of technology to enable oxygen recovery from metabolic CO2. Development work has included Bosch, Sabatier, and CO2 electrolysis systems and more recently plasma reactors, ionic liquids, and other exotic processes. NASA’s historical oxygen recovery work as well as the current state of oxygen recovery work currently going on within the agency is presented and discussed.Item Utilizing Ionic Liquids to Enable the Future of Closed-Loop Life Support Technology(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Brown, Brittany; Stanley, Christine; Paley, Mark; Donovan, David; McLeroy, Jesse; Karr, Laurel; Fox, Eric; Abney, MorganCurrent oxygen recovery technology onboard the International Space Station only recovers approximately 50% of the oxygen from metabolic carbon dioxide, resulting in resupply mass in order to sustain life onboard. Future long duration manned missions will require maximum oxygen recovery in order to reduce resupply mass. Complete recovery of oxygen can be achieved through Bosch technology. The challenge with this technology is that the solid carbon produced during the process results in undesired catalyst resupply mass. Although there have been several approaches to solve this challenge, in order to totally eliminate the need for resupply only one potential process has been identified. This process is a fully regenerable Ionic Liquid (IL) based Bosch system that employs insitu resources. In 2016, efforts were made that proved the feasibility of an IL based Bosch system. ILs were used to electroplate iron onto a copper substrate and to regenerate the iron by extracting the iron from the copper substrate and product carbon. In 2017, efforts were initiated to scale the proposed technology. Here we report the results of those efforts as well as an IL based Bosch system concept and basic reactor design.