Use of rotary vacuum distillation for water recovery from urine and hygiene water aboard the space station

Due to planning of the Moon and deep space exploration programs, the crew sanitary hygiene support with a closed loop of hygiene water assumes great importance. Currently, Russia and the USA are investigating the hygiene water recovery process using reverse osmosis as the most energy efficient method. In the meantime, the urine water processor (SRV-U-RS) based on vacuum distillation method with thermal energy recovery has been developed in Russia and is being tested aboard the ISS. The processor energy consumption is comparable with the energy consumption in hygiene water recovery through reverse osmosis. Therefore, research and testing of a prototype integrated urine water and hygiene water processor as applied to the space station conditions have been arranged and conducted. The investigations demonstrated the recoverability of the hygiene water, including its mixture with urine by vacuum distillation in science hardware SRV-U-RS-type system. The results obtained ensure development of an integrated urine water and hygiene water processing system.