Zeolite Degradation: An Investigation of CO2 Capacity Loss of 13x Sorbent

Date

2017-07-16

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

47th International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

System testing of the Carbon Dioxide Removal and Compression System (CRCS) has revealed that sufficient CO2 removal capability was not achieved with the designed system. Subsystem component analysis of the zeolite bed revealed that the sorbent material suffered significant degradation and CO2 loading capacity loss. In an effort to find the root cause of this degradation, various factors were investigated to try to reproduce the observed performance loss. These factors included contamination by vacuum pump oil, o-ring vacuum grease, loading/unloading procedures, and operations. This paper details the experiments that were performed and their results. From the experimentation performed, a definitive cause of failure could not be determined, and a more detailed zeolite failure analysis will need to be conducted.

Description

Roger Huang, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
Tra-My Justine Richardson, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
Grace Belancik, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
Darrell Jan, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
John Hogan, NASA Ames Research Center, USA
James Knox, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), USA
ICES302: Physio-chemical Life Support- Air Revitalization Systems -Technology and Process Development
The 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in South Carolina, USA on 16 July 2017 through 20 July 2017

Keywords

ECLSS, Sorbent Degradation, Zeolite 13x, Air Revitalization

Citation