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The Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) have been under construction in northern Japan since 1994. These facilities contain the Closed Plant Experiment Facility (CPEF), as well as other facilities, in all of which, Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) research and development can be conducted. The CPEF includes two Plant Cultivation Modules (PCMs), which contain a PCM consists of three 30m2 closed cultivation rooms illuminated solely by lamps and a 165.1m3 preparation room, and a PCM consists of a 60m2 closed cultivation room illuminated by natural light and supplemental lamps and a 88.8m3 preparation room, and a Material Circulation System (MCS). Measured rate of air exchange between a 30m2 cultivation room and the preparation room was 0.48% hour-1, and that for a 60m2 cultivation room was about 0.11% hour-1. Air leak rate of the PCM as a whole was less than 0.01% hour-1 under isothermal and equal pressure condition.

Before a series of overall material circulation in an experimental system including crops, animals and humans, technical examinations for the development of a waste processing system were conducted for incorporating the system to the Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF). The examinations are intended to validate the function of the carbonization and incineration processing units which were installed in the CEEF in 2006. Using different mock-up samples, examinations have been carried out to verify the function and capability of the whole system, including the waste carbonization processing unit, incineration processing unit, exhaust gas tank and the exhaust gas processing unit. In an examination using filter paper pulp as a mock-up sample, processing time in each unit was checked. The processing times needed for carbonization and incineration processing were 5.7 and 2.6 hours, respectively.