The South Dakota School of Mines
& Technology has been awarded $750,000 to develop an extreme biological
system to turn solid waste into a power source for long-term space missions.
The NASA EPSCoR award builds upon
earlier waste conversion concepts developed through Dr. Venkataramana
Gadhamshetty’s research. Earlier this year, Gadhamshetty, of the Department of
Civil & Environmental Engineering, and his research team announced it had
converted discarded tomatoes into electricity (see below).
There is a critical
need for a similar product for NASA, where long-term, manned space missions are challenged by
waste-treatment and power requirements. During space
missions, each crew member typically generates 3.6 pounds of solid waste from
biodegradable (such as food) and non-biodegradable (such as plastic) sources
daily.
This voluminous waste
is a burden to space missions, as it increases fuel consumption and may create
nuisance and health concerns due to the pathogens.
The
South Dakota Mines approach involves unique microorganisms isolated from the deep levels of the Sanford Underground
Research Facility (SURF) in Lead as test subjects to develop an advanced biological module that uses electrochemistry
principles.
The SURF extremophiles (see below) are known to survive
harsh environments typical to extraterrestrial space, where it is seemingly
uninhabitable. Their biology provides a
platform for provocative research to develop bio-modules, which generate electricity from solid
form of wastes, according to Gadhamshetty.
The module would
operate at thermophilic conditions and generate electric power from solid
wastes in a single step. The project will result in an efficient alternative to current processes, which use chemical fuel
cells.
This project also demonstrates a
potential to develop infrastructure for research and education, improve
competitiveness of faculty researchers, and develop commercial products for the
state.
Mines researchers will collaborate
with experts at Argonne National Laboratory and Navy Research Laboratory. The
program will also provide support for seven PhD students and offer
opportunities for research collaborations with the University of South Dakota,
South Dakota State University and two tribal colleges, as well as six industrial
partners.