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Phoenix666 writes:

Given the title of Blenner's proposal for a NASA project—"Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Food, Nutraceuticals, and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel​"—you can see where people would get the wrong idea about recycling poo. (It's currently being renamed.) What Blenner is really doing is a new take on something the International Space Station already does: He's recycling human exhalation and micturation (that is, breath and pee) and turning it into raw materials.

He and his team want to feed carbon dioxide from human breath to algae cultures. Those algae cultures in turn produce lipids and other fats that, in combination with urea (derived in this case from human urine), are a favorite snack of yeast. The genetically engineered yeast will use this feast to create two important chemicals for astronauts: omega 3 fatty acids, and plastics.

The Omega 3s are important because they could be developed into a dietary supplement that astronauts would take while in transit or consumed as a food product. The polyester plastics, meanwhile, would provide raw materials for 3D printing, so astronauts could make tools without having to haul bulky materials up to space. The algae and yeast cultures probably would be dry stored, reducing their weight upon launch.

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