Lunar Organic Waste Reformer

The Lunar Organic Waste Reformer (LOWR) is a novel technology to convert organic wastes from human space exploration outposts into useful propellant constituents. The LOWR meets NASA’s Trash to Supply Gas (TtSG) objective under the Advanced Exploration Systems Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project by integrating steam reformation, methanation, and electrolysis to convert organic waste into methane and oxygen products. At reformer temperatures above 700 °C, oxygenated steam reacts with organic matter to produce a gas mixture largely composed of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. After condensing and removing excess water, the reformer exhaust gases are fed to a catalytic Sabatier reactor where they are combined with supplemental hydrogen at 350 to 500 °C to produce methane and water. The methane product can be liquefied for storage.