Extended crewed space exploration requires high efficiency dehumidifier for atmosphere revitalization. The ideal dehumidifier is expected to operate with little to no energy costs under near-ambient pressure and temperature. Current commercial membrane dehumidifiers are mostly designed to operate at high input pressure to provide driving force for water transport, which requires a lot of energy to compress moisturized air and not suitable for space applications. Nanotrons will develop high performance nano-enabled dehumidification membrane with extremely high moisture/gas selectivity and water permeability, as well as energy efficiency 10 times that of current commercial dehumidifier. The target goals are moisture to air selectivity of >10,000, a water permeation flux of >2kg/(m2?h) and a energy factor of 28L/kWh. In phase I of this program, Nanotrons will demonstrate proof of concept and production feasibility of the proposed membrane. Phase II of this program will deliver highly compact spiral wound membrane modules for applications in space exploration, industrial processing gas moisture removal, or house air conditioning.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Extended crewed space exploration requires high efficiency moisture removal for atmosphere revitalization. The proposed Passive Moisture Removal Membrane has immediate application in the current NASA vision for space exploration. A high energy-saving moisture removal module based on this membrane will provides water recovery capability for long duration missions (lunar habitat and Mars exploration) that require high degrees of loop closure. Other Air Revitalization components that exhaust a humid gas stream (such as Sabatier) could also benefit from water recovery using the moisture removal module proposed in this program.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) It is known to be desirable to remove excess moisture in buildings to prevent the accumulation of mold and for the comfort of occupants of the building. Moisture is particularly a problem in foundation areas of concrete structures in which the moisture can penetrate through concrete walls and floors into occupied spaces of the building. Also after heating and cooling, humidity control is the next major element of indoor air quality control. Removing humidity is a major driver of the energy requirement for conditioning the air. The proposed high energy-saving moisture removal technology will have many opportunities for these applications. Another application of this technology is natural gas dehydration. Dehydration prevents the formation of gas hydrates and reduces corrosion. Unless gases are dehydrated, liquid water may condense in pipelines and accumulate at low points along the line, reducing its flow capacity.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Essential Life Resources (Oxygen, Water, Nutrients)
