NASA SBIR 2007 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Reactive Innovations, LLC
2 Park Drive, Unit 4
Westford, MA 01886 - 3525
(978) 692-4664

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Michael Kimble
mkimble@reactive-innovations.com
2 Park Drive, Unit 4
Westford, MA 01886 - 3525
(978) 692-4664

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 4 to 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
NASA desires to generate and store gases including oxygen and nitrogen at sub-critical conditions as a part of its lunar and spacecraft atmospheric systems. Oxygen at pressures up to 3000 psia is particularly desired for refilling storage tanks for lunar and in-flight applications including recharging high-pressure gas bottles for EVA/EMU, lunar rovers and surface hoppers. To address these needs, Reactive Innovations, LLC proposes to continue developing and delivering a compact high-pressure oxygen concentrator that can take low-pressure atmospheric gas and generate a separate stream of high-pressure pure oxygen. During a Phase I program, we applied our high-pressure reactor hardware to separate and compress oxygen from ambient pressure air and oxygen streams in both dry and saturated conditions. We used this information to develop a predictive performance model for the oxygen concentrator to aid in a conceptual design and to allow NASA mission planners to conduct trade studies on metrics including the generated oxygen rate per compressor mass and power requirements. For the Phase II program, we will produce operational prototype electrochemical concentrators that produce 3000 psia oxygen from ambient pressure sources of air or oxygen. These concentrators will be sized to produce 2 kg of oxygen at 3000 psia within a 24 hour time period. By the end of the Phase II effort, this concentrator will be at a Technology Readiness Level of 4-5.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Applications of this technology to NASA include generating oxygen for sub-critical storage on lunar habitats and within spacecraft environments. This technology will enable pressurized oxygen up to 3000 psia to be used for applications where cryogenic storage is not feasible or desired. Furthermore, NASA desires to use re-configurable modules that can function in dual-use or multi-use systems in these habitation environments. With our modular reactor technology, this process unit can be used for other atmospheric gas processing applications.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Non-NASA commercial applications of the proposed technology could find use in portable oxygen generators and concentrators for medical usage. This could be used in hospital and home therapy applications. Other applications of the oxygen compressor include on-site oxygen production for industrial and manufacturing needs, and on-board oxygen generation on aircraft.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Air Revitalization and Conditioning Biomedical and Life Support Chemical Energy Storage Portable Life Support Production Propellant Storage Renewable Energy