Advanced Magnetically Assisted Stabilized Bed for the Separation of Solid Waste in Microgravity and Hypogravity: Filtration Modeling

Development of efficient means for the recovery of valuable resources from solid waste materials is a critical requirement for future Advanced Life Support (ALS) systems that will be needed to support long-duration manned mission in space. Of particular importance are technologies that may be employed in hypogravity and microgravity environments. Currently three solid waste processing technologies, including supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), microwave powered combustion and fluidized bed incineration, have been tested for the conversion of solid waste. However, none of these technologies are compatible with microgravity or hypogravity operating conditions. To meet these needs, Gradient Magnetically Assisted Stabilized Bed (G-MASB) technology is under development to serve as an operating platform for fluidized bed operations in the space environment. The G-MASB technology has been specifically tailored for microgravity, hypogravity and variable gravity operating conditions. The operation of GMASB was successfully tested in two series of zero-g flight experiments on board NASA's KC-135 aircraft. In this paper, we present a mathematical model describing the filtration of micron-sized solid waste particles from a liquid stream. This model is compared with experimental results obtained in the G-MASB while operated at 1g. The experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.