In-Situ Resource Utilization for Electrochemical Generation of Hydrogen Peroxide for Disinfection

Disinfection needs to meet the personal hygiene requirements of interplanetary travel community in space vehicles is currently accomplished through the use of pre-packaged, disposable, wetted wipes, which represent an appreciable carry-along mass and disposal burden. There is a stated need to develop a system that could use onboard utilities to create on demand disinfectants thereby reducing the astronaut�s dependence on earth-based supplies and further eliminating storage and disposable problems.

Within this context, we are developing an in-situ approach to electrochemically generate hydrogen peroxide disinfectant utilizing onboard life support supplies (Air/Water) to eliminate many of the surface contaminants present in closed living systems. As discussed within our 2018 paper we have demonstrated the potential to produce up to 1 w/w% peroxide with DI water and oxygen utilizing our optimized system. This paper will build upon that work and discuss the results from our zero-gravity flight test and system scale-up activities. Furthermore, the system has been shown to be amenable to utilize various water streams (DI, RO, and Tap water) with or without I or Ag additions as well as air or pure oxygen supplies. Finally, we have scaled the system to produce up to 6 L per day of 1 w/w% peroxide and are working to increase the output concentration up to 6 w/w% peroxide.

The peroxide generation system offers a more economical and practical alternative, with the disinfectant solution being generated on demand and in-situ; and applied to reusable cloths, reducing both the carried and disposed mass associated with the disinfection process. The peroxide generation system demonstrates a strong potential to address a critical need of disinfection within ISS and will also be able to address Earth-based needs in various settings such as hospitals, restaurants, movie theatres, among many others.

Acknowledgements: Financial support of NASA Contracts NNX16CA43P, NNX17CJ12C, and 80NSSC20C0070.