Organization
NASA Ames Research Center’s Bioengineering Branch and the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Center for Integrated Water Research (CIWR) and Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CAFS)
Project Leader
Sherwin Gormly
Summary
SWTC’s initial target of research interest is the application of
Exploration Life Support (ELS) water process/recycling technologies for Earth-based sustainable living. The first planned demonstration
project will focus on rainwater, gray water and/or laundry water recycling. Overall, ELS technologies and concepts will be applied to
the specific needs of the CIWR, a sustainable demonstration farm and adjacent facilities at UCSC. All research undertaken will support
both NASA and UCSC water sustainability objectives and will be well aligned with the goals of the ASL.
More specifically, the SWTC project will undertake basic research and apply/test findings by designing and implementing demonstration
technologies for: rainwater harvesting, purification and storage; rainwater re-use in toilet, urinal flushing, and commercial washing
machines; and recirculation/re-use of commercial washing-machine water.
Key anticipated benefits of the SWTC project include:
- Developing an ongoing collaborative laboratory relationship sharing personnel and resources between NASA Ames, CIWR and CAFS;
- Providing water recycling technology consulting and operator training to CIWR and CAFS;
- Improving water use/re-use in a high-use facility (1,500 users per day) with adjacent laundry facilities and locker room
restrooms; and
- Improving utilization of sustainable water re-use technologies in a high-profile, student-used and student-financed facility.
Project Description
The SWTC project will proceed in two phases. Phase I will focus
on developing active student and faculty interaction between UCSC and NASA Ames. The first step will be to initiate internships to
bring students from CIWR and CAFS to NASA Ames to benefit from laboratory research experiences and opportunities. Phase I internships
will be funded by the NASA Ames Bioengineering Branch beginning in October 2008. During the first year of operations, a Comprehensive
Advanced Water Sustainability Technology Research Cooperation Plan will be developed for the ongoing SWTC project collaboration and a
formal Phase II proposal will be prepared and submitted to an external source for funding support.
Phase II will exploit the knowledge and experience gained in Phase I to develop specific UCSC-based hardware demonstration and test
experiments. SWTC’s initial technology application targets will use life support research and applications experience to impact
laundry water recycling and rain water use representative of the large- and small-scale extremes of the application envelope for
this technology. Applications to water reprocessing in plant growth facilities will also be studied. This type of wastewater stream,
although different in composition from laundry water, has properties appropriate to substantial crossover in process technology.
In particular, it represents an important collaborative direction, along with other technologies related to plant-growth chambers,
for NASA Ames
Sponsored by NASA Ames and the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Sustainable Water Technology
Collaboration project is led Sherwin Gormly of the NASA Ames Bioengineering Branch.
Back to Affiliates Page
|
