Browsing by Author "Mastanduno, Richard"
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Item Energy Efficient Microlith®-based Catalytic Reactor and Recuperator for Air Quality Control Applications(47th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2017-07-16) Vilekar, Saurabh; Hawley, Kyle; Junaedi, Christian; Crowder, Bruce; Prada, Julian; Mastanduno, Richard; Perry, Jay; Kayatin, MatthewPrecision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) and NASA – Marshall (MSFC) have been developing, characterizing, and optimizing high temperature catalytic oxidizers (HTCO) based on PCI’s patented Microlith® technology to meet the requirements of future extended human spaceflight explorations. Previous efforts focused on integrating the HTCO unit with a compact, simple recuperative heat exchanger to reduce the overall system size and weight. Significant improvement was demonstrated over traditional approaches of integrating the HTCO with an external recuperative heat exchanger. While the critical target performance metrics were achieved, the thermal effectiveness of PCI’s recuperator remained a potential area of improvement to further reduce the energy requirements of the integrated system. Using the same material combinations and an improved recuperator design, the 2nd generation prototype has experimentally demonstrated 20 – 30% reduction (flow dependent) in the steady state power consumption, in comparison to the 1st Generation prototype, without compromising the destruction efficiency of methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Moreover, design modifications and improvements allow our prototype to be more easily manufactured compared to traditional brazed plate-fin recuperator designs. The 2nd Generation prototype was delivered to NASA-MSFC for validation testing. Here, we report and discuss the performance of the improved HTCO unit with a high efficiency recuperative heat exchanger based on testing at PCI and NASA-MSFC. The device is expected to provide a reliable and robust means of disposing of trace levels of methane and VOCs by converting them into carbon dioxide and water in order to maintain clean air in enclosed spaces, such as crewed spacecraft cabins.Item Microlith®-based Catalytic Reactor for Air Quality and Trace Contaminant Control Applications(45th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2015-07-12) Vilekar, Saurabh; Hawley, Kyle; Junaedi, Christian; Crowder, Bruce; Prada, Julian; Mastanduno, Richard; Perry, Jay L.; Kayatin, Matthew J.Traditionally, gaseous compounds such as methane, carbon monoxide, and trace contaminants have posed challenges for maintaining clean air in enclosed spaces such as crewed spacecraft cabins as they are hazardous to humans and are often difficult to remove by conventional adsorption technology. Catalytic oxidizers have provided a reliable and robust means of disposing of even trace levels of these compounds by converting them into carbon dioxide and water. Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) and NASA – Marshall (MSFC) have been developing, characterizing, and optimizing high temperature catalytic oxidizers (HTCO) based on PCI’s patented Microlith® technology to meet the requirements of future extended human spaceflight explorations. Current efforts have focused on integrating the HTCO unit with a compact, simple recuperative heat exchanger to reduce the overall system size and weight while also reducing its energy requirements. Previous efforts relied on external heat exchangers to recover the waste heat and recycle it to the oxidizer to minimize the system’s power requirements; however, these units contribute weight and volume burdens to the overall system. They also result in excess heat loss due to the separation of the HTCO and the heat recuperator, resulting in lower overall efficiency. Improvements in the recuperative efficiency and close coupling of HTCO and heat recuperator lead to reductions in system energy requirements and startup time. Results from testing HTCO units integrated with heat recuperators at a variety of scales for cabin air quality control and heat melt compactor applications are reported and their benefits over previous iterations of the HTCO and heat recuperator assembly are quantified in this paper.