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Different options have been examined for providing minerals to plants for bioregeneration. The baseline option is to ship the minerals. The equivalent system mass of two different bioreactor systems for recycling a portion of these minerals, a fixed-film bioreactor and a stirred-tank reactor are calculated. Either option could reduce the ESM for providing these minerals for a 15-year mission to Mars, with 50% food closure.

A continuous leaching device was designed to extract inorganic nutrients from ALS solid wastes for recycling back to hydroponic plant growth systems. The system consists of a conveyor that carries the waste under a water spray. The leacher was used to extract nutrients from hydroponic rice crop residues. The highly aerated and nutrient-rich recirculation liquid supports microbial growth on all surfaces, which leads to biofouling that causes maintenance difficulties. However, it may be better than the standard leaching protocol, as it produces leachate with significantly reduced BOD. This would make it possible to use the leachate from this reactor in hydroponic plant systems without further processing.