A Regenerable Sorbent Bed for Trace Contaminant Removal

The Regenerable Trace Contaminant Control System (RTCCS) is a system designed to meet all of the size, weight, power use, contaminant removal rate, and operational requirements of the International Space Station (ISS) Trace Contaminant Control Subassembly (TCCS) without the need to replace an approximately 80 lb charcoal bed every 90 days. It is designed to remove every class of contaminants found in spacecraft cabin air, including alcohols, aldehydes, aromatics, ethers, esters, chlorocarbons, halocarbons, fluorosilanes, hydrocarbons, ketones, silicones, sulfides, and inorganics, and it is designed to operate continuously with minimal maintenance or periodic replacement major components. The RTCCS is comprised primarily of a pre-sorbent bed, regenerable bed, catalyst bed subassembly, post sorbent bed, blower, and associated valves and instruments. The cabin air is drawn through the pre-sorbent bed by the blower and then through the regenerative bed, the catalyst bed, and the post-sorbent bed. The system will be able to periodically desorb the regenerable sorbent bed by heating it and venting contaminants to space vacuum while keeping the catalyst bed in operation. This paper describes the conceptual design of this system, and describes some of the preliminary calculations made to determine the component sizes and system size, weight, and power estimates.