Pioneering the Approach to Understand a Trash-to-Gas Experiment in a Microgravity Environment

Abstract

The Orbital Syngas/Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) project investigated hardware and engineering development for waste conversion operations related to trash deconstruction and repurposing for long duration space missions. Operations of the trash-to-gas system were investigated to compare microgravity (μg) and Earth gravity environments. The OSCAR system has been demonstrated in other μg platforms, but here the performance and results on the Blue Origin New Shepard Suborbital Vehicle are discussed. The OSCAR suborbital operation demonstrated the introduction of trash into a high temperature reactor for solid to gas conversion, ignition of mixed trash feedstock, combustion during μg, and subsequent gas collection processes in a flight automated sequence. An oxygen (O2)- and steam-rich environment was created within the reactor for ignition conditions, and the product gases were quantified to verify the reaction product composition. This paper focuses on the chemistry processes of the reactor, and gas and solid product analysis of the μg and gravity conditions. The gas production, reactor thermal profile, and mass and carbon conversion results validated confidence in the system design to continue the advancement of this technology for future spaceflight implementations.