• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

From hurricanes to earthquakes, space station experiment overcomes challenges

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
October 14, 2020
in Chemistry
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Few researchers have had to overcome hurricanes and earthquakes, though, just two of the hurdles a team of chemists in Puerto Rico faced getting their investigation to the International Space Station.

IMAGE

Credit: University of Puerto Rico

Space is hard, the saying goes, and conducting science in space presents challenges of its own. Few researchers have had to overcome hurricanes and earthquakes, though, just two of the hurdles a team of chemists in Puerto Rico faced getting their investigation to the International Space Station.

The investigation, Elucidating the Ammonia Electrochemical Oxidation Mechanism via Electrochemical Techniques at the ISS (Ammonia Electrooxidation) examines ammonia oxidation in microgravity.

Ammonia is a small molecule made up of nitrogen and hydrogen. Oxidation is a reaction involving oxygen that breaks up these molecules, producing nitrogen gas, water, and electrical energy. A compound in human urine, urea, can be converted to ammonia, making it an easily available resource. The oxidation process then can be used to produce water and energy, both critical needs on future long-term space missions, as are ways to remove ammonia from a spacecraft or habitat.

The team previously developed the Electrochemical Ammonia Removal system, or EAR, a setup similar to a battery that oxidizes ammonia electrochemically or with an electric current. They put EAR to the test on multiple parabolic flights, which provide scientists access to short-term microgravity by putting a plane into freefall. Results showed that microgravity decreased fuel cell performance 20 to 65 percent. The researchers suspected that the absence of buoyancy in microgravity caused the decrease, but needed to conduct more research to confirm that hypothesis.

“You only have about 25 seconds on parabolic flights,” says principal investigator Carlos Cabrera, chemistry professor at University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in San Juan. “So we wanted to use the space station to look at the process for a longer period of time.”

The Ammonia Electrooxidation investigation proposal received approval from NASA in 2016 under the sponsorship of the ISS National Lab. The team first had to redesign their original flight equipment, shrinking the EAR from the size of a small refrigerator to something closer to a shoebox.

That task fell to Camila Morales-Navas, a chemistry Ph.D. student at the university who had worked on the parabolic flight tests.

Then Hurricane Maria swept across Dominica, St Croix, and Puerto Rico in September 2017. Losses totaled more than $91 billion, mostly in Puerto Rico, where nearly 3,000 people died. The category 5 storm also left the island’s entire population without electricity. Five months later, a quarter of residents still lacked power.

“We had no power on campus until January 2018,” says Morales-Navas. “We can figure things out on paper, but needed power to test configurations for the smaller equipment. Fortunately, we had a power generator in our lab at the Molecular Sciences Research Center, so we kept going.”

More obstacles were yet to come. In late 2019 and early 2020, Puerto Rico experienced a series of earthquakes that once again took out the power, and the university closed until building inspections were completed. In March of this year, the global pandemic closed the campus and lab and in August, Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power yet again.

“It’s like extreme sports, living on this island these past three years,” Morales-Navas says.

Through it all, she kept working, and by August 2020, had the smaller hardware ready. The investigation finally rode to the station on NG-14, the 14th cargo flight for Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus resupply spacecraft that launched Oct. 2.

Operation of the experiment itself presents some challenges, too.

“The buoyancy-free environment of microgravity affects the reactions in the system,” Morales-Navas says. “If the gaseous byproducts form as bubbles, it could block further reactions.”

The researchers included repeated trials in their design so that, even if bubbles affect some of the runs, they still can collect data from the others.

“Astronauts who go to Mars will need energy,” Cabrera adds. “Our objective is to bring the technology to a level of readiness for long-term missions.”

###

Media Contact
Leah Cheshier
[email protected]

Original Source

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/hurricanes-earthquakes-ammonia-electrooxidation/

Tags: Chemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesMolecular Physics
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

IMAGE

Claudia Benitez-Nelson selected for TOS Mentoring Award

January 19, 2021
IMAGE

Research finds tiny bubbles tell tales of big volcanic eruptions

January 19, 2021

Acidification impedes shell development of plankton off the US West Coast

January 19, 2021

Scientists reveal structure of plants’ energy generators

January 19, 2021
Next Post
IMAGE

Climate change undermines the safety of buildings and infrastructure in Europe

IMAGE

Temperature evolution of impurities in a quantum gas

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • Blood pressure drug may be key to increasing lifespan, new study shows

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • New drug form may help treat osteoporosis, calcium-related disorders

    40 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    59 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Ecology/EnvironmentInfectious/Emerging DiseasesTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceMaterialscancerCell BiologyClimate ChangePublic HealthBiologyGeneticsChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesMedicine/Health

Recent Posts

  • Claudia Benitez-Nelson selected for TOS Mentoring Award
  • Teaching youth science skills using wild birds nets UT extension agent a national award
  • Scientists to global policymakers: Treat fish as food to help solve world hunger
  • With a little help from their friends, older birds breed successfully
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In