Analysis of edible oil processing options for the BIO-Plex advanced life support system.
Edible oil is a critical component of the proposed plant-based Advanced Life Support (ALS) diet. Soybean, peanut, and single-cell oil are the oil source options to date. In terrestrial manufacture, oil is ordinarily extracted with hexane, an organic solvent. However, exposed solvents are not permitted in the spacecraft environment or in enclosed human tests by National Aeronautics and Space Administration due to their potential danger and handling difficulty. As a result, alternative oil-processing methods will need to be utilized. Preparation and recovery options include traditional dehulling, crushing, conditioning, and flaking, extrusion, pressing, water extraction, and supercritical extraction. These processing options were evaluated on criteria appropriate to the Advanced Life Support System and BIO-Plex application including: product quality, product stability, waste production, risk, energy needs, labor requirements, utilization of nonrenewable resources, usefulness of by-products, and versatility and mass of equipment to determine the most appropriate ALS edible oil-processing operation.
Greenwalt
C J
CJ
Department of Food Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Hunter
J
J
D010367:Arachis; D004032:Diet; D004042:Dietary Fats, Unsaturated / Q000032:analysis*; D018504:Ecological Systems, Closed; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D005511:Food Handling; D005524:Food Technology; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008612:Menu Planning; D012639:Seeds; D013025:Glycine max; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation; D018561:Space Simulation; D014481:United States; D018557:United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
D004042:Dietary Fats, Unsaturated