Description: OsmoPure Technologies proposes a new class of simple, reliable, and lightweight water recovery systems for humidity condensate and urine treatment. The core of these water recovery systems is the OsmoPure pressure-driven distillation (PD) membrane module. In the PD module, applied pressure is used to drive water flow through a highly selective, chemically robust membrane. The PD module offers high removal of total organic carbon (including dimethylsilanediol), ions, and other contaminants. PD is also chemically robust, allowing the membrane to be used in direct contact with chemicals used to stabilize humidity condensate and urine. The chemically resistant nature of PD membranes also permits membrane cleaning with hydrogen peroxide after extended periods of dormancy. Because PD only requires a small high-pressure pump, operation is simple and low energy. The selectivity, robustness, and ease of implementation of PD make it appealing for applications requiring high-purity treated water including water recycling systems used in short- and long-term space travel. In the proposed treatment train, PD is followed by an activated carbon module (to polish product water) and ultraviolet irradiation (to provide final disinfection). The proposed process will weigh 11.7 kg and produce 285 kg of potable water from humidity condensate over the course of a 30-day mission. Overall, the OsmoPure Technologies water recovery system offers dramatically decreased mass and simplified operation compared to current water recycling processes.

Benefits: The pressure-driven distillation (PD) module in the proposed innovation is the result of five years of NASA funded research and development at the University of Colorado Boulder by the co-founders of OsmoPure Technologies. PD's oxidant resistant properties, low mass, and high rejection of most solutes (including dimethylsilanediol) make it a promising solution to the problems faced in recycling of humidity condensate and urine. PD can highly remove the most challenging compounds in water recycling feedwaters with >97% rejection of dimethylsilanediol, ammonium and bicarbonate ions, urea, and propylene glycol. When PD is combined with a lightweight (0.5 kg) activated carbon column and advanced oxidation processes, the overall water recovery system produces low total organic carbon (< 3 mg/L), biologically inactive, potable water. The proposed urine treatment train will involve mixing urine with humidity condensate prior to treatment with a target water recovery of 95%. Conditions necessary for urine distillation include a temperature below 40 ƒ and the addition of a chemical pretreatment to prevent the hydrolysis of urea. Both conditions are ideal for PD as it does not require high temperatures for distillation and shows strong resistance to chemical oxidants and low pH. PD shows high rejection of all contaminants seen in pretreated urine including urea and other non-volatile compounds. Overall, the OsmoPure Technologies system will facilitate simple and high recovery water recycling for short-term missions.As population growth and climate change exacerbate global water scarcity, there is an increasing need to augment water supplies with unconventional resources, such as seawater or wastewater. Concurrently, industrial requirements for ultrapure water are increasing due to growing demands in electronic device manufacturing, hydrogen gas production, and spaceflight life support systems. To address water scarcity and ultrapure water needs, water treatment technologies that can remove nearly all dissolved solutes from water are needed. However, current advanced water treatment is expensive and energy-intensive, oftentimes requiring a complex treatment train comprising multi-pass reverse osmosis with pre- and post-treatment steps. The complexity of current processes is attributable to shortcomings in current reverse osmosis membranes, which fail to remove key contaminants and degrade when exposed to oxidants and chemical cleaning agents. Initial customer discovery interviews done through the regional I-Corps program conducted by the PI of this project with ultrapure water engineers at Broadcom (an integrated circuit manufacturer in Colorado) have led the team to the beachhead market of ultrapure water treatment. The market of ultrapure water production for electronics manufacturing and green hydrogen production has unmet needs related to unique purity requirements where our technology offers a high value proposition with strong pricing power. Our membrane technology offers clear advantages compared to state-of-the-art technologies, such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation. After the demonstration of success in our beachhead market, our goal is to eventually expand to markets of desalination and wastewater treatment in the future.