Abstract Manned spaceflight outside of low-Earth orbit requires significant advances in closed-loop life support systems, especially the recycling of solid and liquid wastes to produce oxygen, food, and fresh water. Here, moderate temperature (400–600 °C) slow pyrolysis was tested to transform a high-fidelity spacecraft solid waste simulant into nutrient-rich crop growth medium for food production in space, while recovering water and carbon dioxide. Qualitative results indicated that water recovered from a simple drying process was of poor quality. Produced biochars approximated the characteristics of saline-sodic soils with P, K and micronutrients, low nitrogen, and no meaningful heavy metals, which suggests applicability as growth media. Before being used as growth media, biochar would likely need to be rinsed to remove sodium and supplemented with a source of nitrogen. If uncatalyzed slow pyrolysis is to be used, observations suggest that the produced volatiles should be directly combusted and water recovered from the flue gas, rather than trying to condense and separate the watery bio-oil product. This proof of concept study determined that low-temperature pyrolysis can be used to generate biochar-based soil, which may support agriculture during spaceflight while recycling nutrients and water from waste materials.

中文翻译：

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航天器固体废物热解用于水回收和植物生长培养基生产的潜力

摘要 低地球轨道外的载人航天飞行需要在闭环生命支持系统方面取得重大进展，尤其是固体和液体废物的回收利用以生产氧气、食物和淡水。在这里，测试了中等温度（400-600°C）缓慢热解，以将高保真航天器固体废物模拟物转化为营养丰富的作物生长培养基，用于太空食品生产，同时回收水和二氧化碳。定性结果表明，从简单干燥过程中回收的水质量较差。生产的生物炭与含磷、钾和微量营养素、低氮且不含有意义的重金属的盐碱地土壤的特征相近，这表明其可用作生长介质。在用作生长培养基之前，biochar 可能需要冲洗以去除钠并补充氮源。如果要使用非催化缓慢热解，观察表明应直接燃烧产生的挥发物并从烟道气中回收水，而不是试图冷凝和分离含水生物油产品。这项概念验证研究确定，低温热解可用于生成基于生物炭的土壤，这可以在太空飞行期间支持农业，同时从废物中回收养分和水。