Bioelectrochemical degradation of urea at platinized boron doped diamond electrodes for bioregenerative systems

The recovery of potable water from space mission wastewater is critical for the life support and environmental health of crew members in long-term missions. NASA estimates reveal that at manned space missions 1.91 kg/person day of urine is produced, with urea and various salts as its main components. In this research we explore the utilization of urease (EC 3.5.1.5, 15,000 U/g) along with a platinized boron doped diamond electrode (Pt-BDD) to degrade urea. Urea is directly degraded to nitrogen by the in situ utilization of the reaction products as a strategy to increase the amount of clean water in future space expeditions. The biochemical reaction of urease produces ammonia and carbon dioxide from urea. Thereafter, ammonia is electrooxidized at the interface of the Pt-BDD producing molecular nitrogen. The herein presented system has been proven to have 20% urea conversion efficiency. This research has potential applications for future long-term space missions since the reaction byproducts could be used for a biomass subsystem (in situ resource recovery), while generating electricity from the same process.     

固定化细胞流化床生物反应器处理啤酒废水及其稳定性的研究

采用固化细胞的好氧生物流化床反应器处理啤废水，比较了有无内循环对废水处理效率的影响。通过对啤酒废水的连续处理，考察了反应器对废水处理效率的稳定性，据此提出稳定性常数α和性能指数δ的概念用来衡量反应器的性能。