Closing the Water Loop for Exploration: Status of the Brine Processor Assembly

The NASA Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Life Support Systems (LSS) project together with Paragon Space Development Corporation are working to develop a brine processor assembly for demonstration on the International Space Station (ISS). The Brine Processor will demonstrate the recovery of water from urine brine produced by the ISS Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). If successful, the Brine Processor will demonstrate water recovery rates greater than the current 75-90% possible using vapor compression distillation. The Brine Processor aims to recover up to 98% of water on ISS by utilizing forced convection of spacecraft cabin air coupled with a robust membrane distillation process to purify water from 22.5 liters of brine within a 26 day cycle. An ionomer-microporous membrane pair will be used to contain the brine while transferring water vapor to the cabin air. The water vapor is collected by the existing spacecraft condensing heat exchanger(s), which recover metabolically produced water vapor as humidity condensate. This paper will discuss progress to-date in the project including many critical technical and ISS integration milestones that the project has to meet in order to successfully deliver the proto-flight unit in August 2018.