title: Application of nitrifying and denitrifying processes to waste management of aquatic life support in space
abstract: Since a biological filter with nitrifying bacteria was firstly applied to aquatic animal experiments in IML-2 mission, the reactor system has been further studied to combine both nitrifying and denitrifying reactions under aerobic environment allowing an efficient removal of inorganic nitrogen from animal wastes. The isolated denitrifying bacteria had an activity under aerobic condition with rice straw providing a metabolic carbon source for the reaction. The advantage of the aerobic biological filter having both nitrifying and denitrifying activities may allow to reduce the size of the life support system and also for its manageability. The paper reports characteristics of the biological filter systems used for the IML-2 mission and the improved combined filter system having both nitrifying and denitrifying activities, and discuss its application to space experiments.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Engineering Services Co., Ltd., Tsukuba, Japan. rvshimura@aes.co.jp
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shimura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumagai
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kozu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Motoki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ijiri
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture / Q000295:instrumentation; D001407:Bacillus; D001419:Bacteria; D005374:Filtration; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007814:Larva; D008021:Life Support Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D009990:Oryzias; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods; D014893:Weightlessness
chemical_list: D009566:Nitrates; D000641:Ammonia; D009584:Nitrogen