Integrated Simulations of the Sabatier and Carbon Vapor Deposition Reactor to Understand Its Impacts to Operations and Performance

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dc.creatorChen, Thomas T.
dc.date.accessioned2024-06-23T22:08:24Z
dc.date.available2024-06-23T22:08:24Z
dc.date.issued2024-07-21
dc.descriptionThomas T. Chen, NASA Johnson Space Center(JSC), USA
dc.descriptionICES300: ECLSS Modeling and Test Correlations
dc.descriptionThe 53rd International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, on 21 July 2024 through 25 July 2024.
dc.description.abstractThe Carbon Vapor Deposition (CVD) reactor is a technology developed by Honeywell Aerospace to convert methane, at high temperatures, into hydrogen and solid carbon. This element is coupled with a Sabatier reactor to support a closed loop environmental control and life support system with the aim of achieving nearly complete oxygen recovery (> 95%). Initial open loop, brassboard CVD reactor tests and simulations have shown its ability to achieve moderately high methane conversion and high hydrogen selectivity. However, in an integrated system, additional deficiencies are expected due to recycling of unreacted or extraneous species from the Sabatier reactor (e.g., carbon dioxide, hydrogen, water) and CVD reactor (e.g., hydrocarbons, methane, etc.). Sabatier and CVD reactor models were integrated and simulated to predict potential impacts to individual reactors� and overall system�s performance. The simulations showed that increasing the recycle of the CVD effluent hydrogen combined with decreasing the system inlet hydrogen flow rate (i.e., drawing a stoichiometric flow rate from an electrolyzer) can lead to an oxygen recovery of > 95%. However, system integration comes at a detriment to the individual reactors. The simulations show the initial conversion from the integrated system (Sabatier = 87% and CVD = 63%) to be lower than the standalone systems (Sabatier = 91% and CVD = 68%). Furthermore, transient simulations show substrate densification leading to worsening methane conversion coupled with increasing acetylene production, which is commensurate with soot formation. Simulations predict a shortening of the maintenance interval (i.e., time until CVD methane conversion drops below 50%) in the integrated system (Integrated = 110 hours vs Standalone = 275 hours), which would increase in the consumable substrate mass by ~2.5�. These analyses highlight the importance of long duration, integrated tests to corroborate these findings as well as suggest potential modifications (e.g., intermediate gas separations) to improve performance.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherICES-2024-156
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2346/98855
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems
dc.subjectECLSS
dc.subjectCO2 Reduction
dc.subjectKinetics
dc.subjectReactor
dc.subjectO2 Recovery
dc.subjectClosed-Loop
dc.subjectPyrolysis
dc.subjectChemical Modeling
dc.subjectAir Revitalization
dc.titleIntegrated Simulations of the Sabatier and Carbon Vapor Deposition Reactor to Understand Its Impacts to Operations and Performance
dc.typePresentations

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