Black water treatment unit for Concordia
This activity was approved by the Aurora Board of Participants within the Work Plan 2005-2006 and should be initiated by the end of 2005.
The Antarctic environment is protected by International Treaties and all waste materials must be removed from the Continent, making wastewater treatment a major issue. ESA, in association with the MELiSSA experts, is developing the necessary grey water (for example shower water) and black water (for example toilet water) treatment units to the Concordia Station.
For 15 years, ESA has been developing technologies in all the main Life Support areas: air and water recycling, waste management, food production, contaminants measurement and control. These technologies, which are based either on physico-chemical or biological technologies have reached different levels of development.
Due to the extreme difficulty to simulate waste diversity a proper demonstration of the waste-recycling unit cannot be done without life test campaign. It is proposed to take advantage of the IPEV/ESA collaboration to test a waste-recycling unit devoted to black water on the Concordia site in Antarctica.
Based on previous research activities including recommended design of the Black Water Treatment Unit (BWTU), it is proposed to build and test the Black water treatment unit for Concordia Station.
For more information see:
http://ecls.esa.int/ecls/
| Start |
Expected or actual duration | Status | Prime contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| June '06 | 9 months | To be kicked off | EPAS |