Technical Paper
A Prototype Pyrolyzer for Solid Waste Resource Recovery in Space
2001-07-09
2001-01-2349
Pyrolysis processing is one of several options for solid waste resource recovery in space. It has the advantage of being relatively simple and adaptable to a wide variety of feedstocks and it can produce several usable products from typical waste streams. The objective of this study is to produce a prototype mixed solid waste pyrolyzer for spacecraft applications. A two-stage reactor system was developed which can process about 1 kg of waste per cycle. The reactor includes a pyrolysis chamber where the waste is heated to temperatures above 600°C for primary pyrolysis. The volatile products (liquids, gases) are transported by a N2 purge gas to a second chamber which contains a catalyst bed for cracking the tars at temperatures of about 1000 °C −1100 °C. The tars are cracked into carbon and additional gases. Most of the carbon is subsequently gasified by oxygenated volatiles (CO2, H2O) from the first stage.