Technical Paper
Investigation into the Performance of Membrane Separator Technologies used in the International Space Station Regenerative Life Support Systems: Results and Lessons Learned
2001-07-09
2001-01-2354
The Volatile Removal Assembly Flight Experiment (VRAFE) was performed in May of 1999, on board Shuttle Flight STS-96 to support the development of the International Space Station (ISS) Water Recovery System (WRS). The objective of this experiment was to address concerns in the performance of a two-phase, catalytic reactor in a microgravity environment. During the experiment, an unexpected finding was discovered when the VRAFE Gas/Liquid Separator (GLS) failed to separate gas from the reactor outlet stream. The VRAFE GLS was a two-membrane (flat sheet hydrophobic and hydrophilic membrane) gas trap. Flight data as well as the post-flight failure investigation determined that the GLS hydrophobic membrane failed as a result of very fine hydrophilic catalyst particles from the VRAFE reactor that had contaminated the surface of the hydrophobic membrane.
