Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2024 - 29

Freeze-Resistant Hydration System
Portable drinking bladder designed for rugged, cold, and high-altitude conditions.
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
N
ASA's Johnson Space Center is offering
an innovative freeze-resistant hydration
system for licensing. The technology
substantially improves on existing
hydration systems because it prevents
water from freezing in the tubing, container,
and mouthpiece, even in the
harshest conditions on Earth. This technology
is designed to work to -40 °C and
15-mile-per-hour winds over a 12-hour
summit day, and likely well beyond.
Even when a water conformal fluid reservoir
and drink straw are zipped into a
down suit, water freezes under extreme
conditions. This poses a health hazard, particularly
to
high-altitude
climbers
who
mouth-breathe, as mouth-breathing causes
substantial fluid loss (in exhaled breaths).
Climbers of 8,000-meter peaks get only 1
liter or less of fluid on summit days because
their drink bottles freeze so quickly. The
freeze-resistant hydration system keeps water
from freezing in three different ways.
First, the system has passive thermal control
that uses aerogel insulation on the outside
of the conformal fluid reservoir and
around the drinking straw to protect the
contents from the cold. The container is
placed within an inner layer of clothing,
and the insulated straw is pulled out from
underneath the suit for sips.
Second, the system has a braided copper
wire placed around the exterior of the
The technology substantially improves on existing hydration systems because it prevents water
from freezing in the tubing, container, and mouthpiece, even in the harshest conditions on Earth.
(Image: NASA)
drinking straw and another heat-collecting
surface about the container wall to transfer
body-generated heat to the fluid reservoir
and straw during use. Third, the system
uses a microcontroller and tape heater
powered by a battery to keep the straw
warm as well as free of ice crystals.
Field testing of the technology was performed
at Mt. Everest in May 2009. The
device was originally conceived and designed
by an astronaut-mountaineer who
recognized the great risk of dehydration in
high mountains and the lack of sufficient
technology to meet this important need.
NASA is actively seeking licensees to
commercialize this technology. Please
contact NASA's Licensing Concierge at
Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
or call at 202-358-7432 to initiate licensing
discussions. For more information, visit
https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/
MSC-TOPS-21.
Converting Carbon Dioxide to Solid Carbon Nanofibers
Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent
greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material.
Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University, NY
R
esearchers at the U.S. Department of
Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National
Laboratory and Columbia University
have developed a way to convert carbon
dioxide (CO₂), a potent greenhouse gas,
into carbon nanofibers, materials with
a wide range of unique properties and
many potential long-term uses. Their
strategy uses tandem electrochemical
and thermochemical reactions run at
Tech Briefs, May 2024
relatively low temperatures and ambient
pressure. As the scientists describe in the
journal Nature Catalysis, this approach
could successfully lock carbon away
in a useful solid form to offset or even
achieve negative carbon emissions.
" You can put the carbon nanofibers
into cement to strengthen the cement, "
said Jingguang Chen, Professor of Chemical
engineering at Columbia with a joint
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appointment at Brookhaven Lab who led
the research. " That would lock the carbon
away in concrete for at least 50 years,
potentially longer. By then, the world
should be shifted to primarily renewable
energy sources that don't emit carbon. "
As a bonus, the process also produces
hydrogen gas (H₂), a promising alternative
fuel that, when used, creates
zero emissions.
29

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Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2024

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