Bead Evaporator for Complete Water and Salt Recovery from Brine

For future long-duration manned space missions, water loop closure is absolutely vital. The current primary water recovery system recovers about 90% of the water from a waste stream leaving the remainder in contaminant laden brine. In this paper, a Brine Evaporation and Mineralization System (BEMS) is described that was used to dry the brine and oxidize the gaseous effluent resulting in complete water recovery. Evaporation and mineralization was completed in an evaporator where an evaporation support was loaded with brine and cycled through the required temperatures to vaporize the volatile components and then oxidize the residue, leaving only salt behind. Gaseous vapors from the evaporator were propelled to the catalytic oxidizer using an air stream that doubled as the oxygen supply for the oxidation process. Resultant water vapor and product gases were then sent through a condensate trap to collect the water. Lastly, salt buildup on the beads was removed during a regeneration process using an agitator and air backflow. Our results showed that the BEMS reduced the total organic carbon in the influent ersatz solution to approximately 0.3% of its original level, and that salt buildup can be effectively removed.