🖖 The ripple effect

We should talk about the beverage side of things.

The most important beverage: water.

They can’t exactly turn on the tap and fill up a glass. So how do they get their water?

With yet another closed loop system.

We Earflings breathe.
We sweat.
And we tinkle.

All of that can be captured and recycled. The result is clean drinking water that starts the whole cycle over again.

Scientists reached their goal of a 98% reclamation rate.

Meaning they can recycle 1,881 out of the available 1,920L stored on board.

Wowzers!

At 98% the space station can be self-sufficient- a requirement for colonies and destinations far, far away…

It’s a closed loop system in two steps.

If we can create systems like this for a spacecraft, we can create units for certain buildings.

Our water treatment plants could get an eco-upgrade.

Here’s how.

Step 1: Water Recovery System

This takes place in two ways.

Water is first collected from the air- anything we breathe and sweat out.

Even the humidity from inside spacesuits is collected and added with the rest.

Dehumidifiers collect it all.

The second is the aptly named Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) which distills urine to separate the water from everything else.

What remains is essentially a brine. A pee brine. Don’t worry. I won’t include a recipe.

But brines still contain water. So we need to get that out.

Now we can with the Brine Processor Assembly (BPA).

Pickleback

The BPA is a series of special membranes for reverse osmosis filtration.

To clarify- regular old osmosis is when a solution with more water passes through a membrane to another solution with less water.

You’ve done this plenty of times. Any time you pickled vegetables or brined meat.

The non-salted water inside the product diffuses into the brine back and forth with the dissolved salt until both sides are balanced.

Et voilà. A pickle.

Reverse osmosis is when you apply pressure to the lower water solution -in this case urine- and force it to pass to the higher solution side.

Once it passes through those membranes it is blown with warm, dry air. Kinda like a hair dryer.

It evaporates.

From there it’s just like the water vapour from our breath and gets collected by the dehumidifiers.

Step 2: Water Processor Assembly

All the water gets sent through another series of filters designed to remove specific elements:

• 1st filter: screens physical particulates

• 2nd filter: adsorption (yes with a ‘d’ not a ‘b’)- sticks to non-water molecules like fruit flies to a glue trap. Just like the charcoal you put in water.

• 3rd filter: ion exchange- loose ions from minerals and metals are exchanged for cleaner ones. Ions (sulfates, lead, chlorides, etc.) can lead to health issues and machine damage.

The water goes through a catalytic reactor that breaks down any remaining contaminants.

The catalyst removes pathogens, viruses, odour, colour and even pharmaceutical residue. 

Sensors at the end check if everything meets standards. If not it goes through the whole process again.

When the water gets the ok it’s stored in tanks ready for use. Iodine is added to prevent microbes from growing.

The whole shebang can crank out over 136L a day.

From there it’s good for drinking, food prep, brushing their teeth. You name it.

I’m sure you’re liking the idea of drinking water from pee. But this is probably the cleanest water you’ll ever come across.

Why not just send up more water?

The simple answer: it’s heavy. And every additional kilogram is expensive.

But sending it to Mars? 

Out of the question.

That payload space will be needed for equipment and personnel.

Also stations and colonies will need to be self-sufficient. In the event of an emergency or damage to the water systems there’s no chance for refills to get to them in time.

Imagine these filtration units at hospitals. Universities. Or even government buildings.

The technology is there.

What could we accomplish by recycling 98% of our water usage?

P.S. Please share this article with anyone as forward thinking and environmentally conscious as yourself. Who knows. If the right people get the right ideas we can make the magic happen.