Prospects for using a full-scale installation for wet combustion of organic wastes in closed life support systems

The issue of recycling organic wastes in closed life support systems (CLSS) includes both fundamental aspects of environmental safety of the recycled products and their effective involvement in material cycles and technical aspects related to the structure of the system and the crew's demands. This study estimates the effectiveness of wet combustion of different amounts of organic wastes in hydrogen peroxide under application of an alternating current electric field. The study also addresses the possibility of controlling the process automatically. The results show that processing of greater amounts of wastes reduces specific power consumption and shortens the duration of the process, without significantly affecting the level of oxidation of the products. An automatic control system for a semi-commercial installation has been constructed and tested experimentally. The solution of mineralized human wastes prepared in the automatically controlled process in this installation was successfully used to grow radish plants, with the main production parameters being similar to those of the control.