1 research outputs found
Ultrasonic Desorption from an Ionic Liquid Loop for Continuously Regenerable CO2 Removal from Spacecraft Cabin Atmospheres
No full textBryce Loging, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesJesús Meléndez Gil, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesAshwin Balaji, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesJackson Castle, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesSteven Liu, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesZoë Major, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesMarius Li Jiang Merten, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesSenaa Mirza, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesJack Priske, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesAnthony Rifaat, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesTyndall Rounsefell, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesBrian Terasaki, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesMarjorie Trahan, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesBrice Anderson, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesDakota Kelly, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesJames Nabity, University of Colorado - Boulder, United StatesICES302: Physico-Chemical Life Support- Air Revitalization
Systems -Technology and Process DevelopmentThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.The CO2 Environmental Removal for Extended-duration
Spaceflight (CERES) student team at the University of
Colorado Boulder uses ionic liquid (IL)-based concepts for
regenerable CO2 removal from simulated cabin atmospheres.
The process described here utilizes an ionic liquid loop to
connect the absorption and desorption modules that together
form a closed loop continuously regenerative system. The
first module, the “absorber”, is a hollow-fiber membrane
contactor used to provide a contacting surface between a
CO2-laden atmosphere stream and the flowing IL. The IL
absorbs CO2 from the cabin atmosphere stream. The CO2-rich
IL flows into a custom flat-plate “desorber” module to
extract CO2. A vacuum pump creates a negative pressure
differential in the headspace of the desorber with respect
to the partial pressure of absorbed CO2 (ppCO2). In
combination with negative pressure, an ultrasonic
transducer attached to the desorber module is used to
enhance the desorption of weakly bonded CO2 from the ionic
liquid. Once the CO2 is expelled from the system, the
regenerated IL loops back to the absorber module for
continuous CO2 removal. Through testing, data showed that
the system was effectively absorbing and desorbing CO2,
demonstrating the function of the system. However, a
software failure of the ultrasonic system prevented the
investigation of ultrasonic desorption, which will remain
the focus of future work. Here, we present our system
design and report the results from experiments to
characterize the CO2 transport rate under varying
conditions of cabin atmosphere CO2 concentration,
atmosphere, and ionic liquid flow rates
