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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 30 2018, @06:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the nom-nom-nom-nope dept.

Microbes may help astronauts transform human waste into food

Human waste may one day be a valuable resource for astronauts on deep-space missions. Now, a Penn State research team has shown that it is possible to rapidly break down solid and liquid waste to grow food with a series of microbial reactors, while simultaneously minimizing pathogen growth.

"We envisioned and tested the concept of simultaneously treating astronauts' waste with microbes while producing a biomass that is edible either directly or indirectly depending on safety concerns," said Christopher House, professor of geosciences, Penn State. "It's a little strange, but the concept would be a little bit like Marmite or Vegemite where you're eating a smear of 'microbial goo.'"

[...] "Each component is quite robust and fast and breaks down waste quickly," said House. "That's why this might have potential for future space flight. It's faster than growing tomatoes or potatoes."

Today, astronauts aboard the International Space Station recycle a portion of water from urine, but the process is energy intensive, said House. Solid waste management has been a bigger hurdle. This currently is ejected into the Earth's atmosphere where it burns up.

"Imagine if someone were to fine-tune our system so that you could get 85 percent of the carbon and nitrogen back from waste into protein without having to use hydroponics or artificial light," said House. "That would be a fantastic development for deep-space travel."

Coupling of anaerobic waste treatment to produce protein- and lipid-rich bacterial biomass (DOI: 10.1016/j.lssr.2017.07.006) (DX)


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday January 30 2018, @03:45PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @03:45PM (#630403) Journal

    How about this?

    All sewage / biological waste on the spacecraft should be mashed into a watery sludge and slowly pumped through an array of thin tanks - more like panels, really, stacked atop one another, on the outside of the vehicle.
    It takes days or weeks for the sludge to pass through the full set of tanks, starting at the outermost one and working its way back in. Basically, you want it out there for however long it needs for the solar / cosmic radiation to kill 99.99% of all bacteria. By the time it makes it back inside the ship, it is more or less sterile, but full of nutrients. Dry it 1, spread it out and add some nice soil bacteria. Now you can grow crops in it, completing the cycle.

    It's a long process which would require a lot of material, but as long as that sludge is on the outside of the ship (and there always would be some, as long as the crew keeps eating) it is providing radiation shielding. Might work better on a fixed habitat (moonbase?) than on a ship, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work.

    For bonus points: Use it as a heatsink too: Excess heat from the engines or wherever can be transferred to the poosludge, whence it can radiate off into space. This will help maintain the ship at a livable temperature and further help kill off the bacteria2

    1 All extracted water is recycled, obviously
    2 Well, it depends how much heat you transfer, obviously. You shouldn't need to get it too warm to screw with the bacteria's lifecycle.

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