(652d) Design and Scale-up of Tvsa Cycle for CO2 Removal from Spacecraft Cabins Using a Structured Adsorbent

The overall goal of this project is to design and scale up a temperature vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA) process that utilizes an IntraMicron (IM) structured adsorbent that consists of a copper microfibrous media with entrapped ground and sieved 13X adsorbent particles. This TSA cycle design would be perhaps a drop-in replacement for the TVSA unit on board the ISS or it may be a grass roots design for future applications. This design is based on simulations being carried out with the USC dynamic adsorption process simulator (DAPS) and validated experimentally using the USC single bed apparatus in a TVSA mode.

An extensive bench scale experimental study is being carried out around the base case separation that meets or exceeds the required CO₂ removal rate for four astronauts. This removal rate is 1 kg of CO₂ per day per astronaut. This corresponds to processing around 740 SLPM of a feed steam containing 2,700 ppm of CO₂ and removing 68.5 % of this CO₂. The effects of the feed flow rate, CO₂ concentration, cycle time, regeneration temperature and low vacuum pressure on the process performance are being investigated. DAPS will utilize these bench scale experimental results to design and scale up a new column utilizing the IM structured adsorbent. The latest results of this project will be presented.