Heat Melt Compactor Gas Contaminants from Single Waste Materials

A Heat Melt Compactor (HMC) has been under development by NASA in recent years as a technology for processing space mission trash. The HMC compacts the trash, heats the trash to 150 C, sterilizes the trash, and recovers the water from the trash. The heating causes volatile contaminants to be released from the trash, and these contaminants can either be vented to space or oxidized so that the air containing the contaminants can be recycled to the habitat. Characterization of the contaminants has been conducted in the past on the average mixed trash stream. However, every waste batch on a mission will not contain exactly the average overall composition; consequently, it is of value to understand the contribution of each of the components of the trash. This paper provides a summary of the major contaminants produced by components of the trash heated on a temperature profile such as trash experiences in the HMC.