1
|
Frossard E, Crain G, Giménez de Azcárate Bordóns I, Hirschvogel C, Oberson A, Paille C, Pellegri G, Udert KM. Recycling nutrients from organic waste for growing higher plants in the Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) loop during long-term space missions. LIFE SCIENCES IN SPACE RESEARCH 2024; 40:176-185. [PMID: 38245343 DOI: 10.1016/j.lssr.2023.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2024]
Abstract
Space agencies are developing Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) in view of upcoming long-term crewed space missions. Most of these BLSS plan to include various crops to produce different types of foods, clean water, and O2 while capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. However, growing these plants will require the appropriate addition of nutrients in forms that are available. As shipping fertilizers from Earth would be too costly, it will be necessary to use waste-derived nutrients. Using the example of the MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) loop of the European Space Agency, this paper reviews what should be considered so that nutrients recycled from waste streams could be used by plants grown in a hydroponic system. Whereas substantial research has been conducted on nitrogen and phosphorus recovery from human urine, much work remains to be done on recovering nutrients from other liquid and solid organic waste. It is essential to continue to study ways to efficiently remove sodium and chloride from urine and other organic waste to prevent the spread of these elements to the rest of the MELiSSA loop. A full nitrogen balance at habitat level will have to be achieved; on one hand, sufficient N2 will be needed to maintain atmospheric pressure at a proper level and on the other, enough mineral nitrogen will have to be provided to the plants to ensure biomass production. From a plant nutrition point of view, we will need to evaluate whether the flux of nutrients reaching the hydroponic system will enable the production of nutrient solutions able to sustain a wide variety of crops. We will also have to assess the nutrient use efficiency of these crops and how that efficiency might be increased. Techniques and sensors will have to be developed to grow the plants, considering low levels or the total absence of gravity, the limited volume available to plant growth systems, variations in plant needs, the recycling of nutrient solutions, and eventually the ultimate disposal of waste that can no longer be used.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel Frossard
- ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, 8315, Lindau, Switzerland.
| | - Grace Crain
- ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, 8315, Lindau, Switzerland
| | | | | | - Astrid Oberson
- ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, 8315, Lindau, Switzerland
| | | | - Geremia Pellegri
- ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, 8315, Lindau, Switzerland
| | - Kai M Udert
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600, Dubendorf, Switzerland; ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Ciurans C, Guerrero JM, Martínez-Mongue I, Dussap CG, Marin de Mas I, Gòdia F. Enhancing control systems of higher plant culture chambers via multilevel structural mechanistic modelling. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:970410. [PMID: 36340344 PMCID: PMC9632494 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.970410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Modelling higher plant growth is of strategic interest for modern agriculture as well as for the development of bioregenerative life support systems for space applications, where crop growth is expected to play an essential role. The capability of constraint-based metabolic models to cope the diel dynamics of plants growth is integrated into a multilevel modelling approach including mass and energy transfer and enzyme kinetics. Lactuca sativa is used as an exemplary crop to validate, with experimental data, the approach presented as well as to design a novel model-based predictive control strategy embedding metabolic information. The proposed modelling strategy predicts with high accuracy the dynamics of gas exchange and the distribution of fluxes in the metabolic network whereas the control architecture presented can be useful to manage higher plants chambers and open new ways of merging metabolome and control algorithms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carles Ciurans
- Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) Pilot Plant-Claude Chipaux Laboratory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Josep M. Guerrero
- Centre for Research on Microgrids (CROM), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
| | | | - Claude G. Dussap
- Institut Pascal, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Igor Marin de Mas
- AAU Energy, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Sustainability, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Francesc Gòdia
- Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) Pilot Plant-Claude Chipaux Laboratory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Centre for Space Studies and Research - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (CERES-UAB), Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| |
Collapse
|