Booth Id:
ENEV026
Category:
Environmental Engineering
Year:
2022
Finalist Names:
Zhang, Jingyuan (School: Beijing No. 4 High School)
Abstract:
Bioregenerative life support system (BLSS) can provide life support for human long-term deep space exploration. It is a completely closed ecosystem. In this system, the full utilization of the inedible plant waste has great significance to the material cycle and energy cycle of the system. At present, the utilization methods - incineration and soil like substrate cannot make full use of the inedible waste in BLSS. For the first time, I proposed to degrade the inedible plant waste into sugar with feces flora of herbivores, because herbivores can degrade the cellulose into sugar through microorganisms in their digestive system. It was found that there were a large number of cellulose degradation bacteria in the herbivore degradation flora. The weight loss of the fermentation system increased to 60wt.% after 30 days, but the concentration of reducing sugar keep stable about 0.4-0.7wt.%. When the content of added glucose in the system reaches more than 3%, microorganisms will be killed due to too high sugar concentration. The analysis also showed that there were almost no lignin degradation byproducts in the fermentation products. The results showed that it is possible to saccharify inedible waste with the fecal flora of herbivores to provide energy for life activities, but the sugar content is maintained at a low level due to the joint influence of microbial reproduction, respiration and other factors. Further work needs to be done in screening saccharifying bacteria and extracting sugar.