Overview
This ESA project focuses on the state of the art for bioproducts, derived from organic and biomaterial
processes, and used as bionutrients along with technical nutrients.
The goal is to find bioproducts that have a high value and are compatible with
sustainable material management so they can be used in space craft and space stations, where the focus
is on manufacturing and recycling. Further, the sustainable material concept is based on the cradle to
cradle (C2C) approach for biological and technical nutrients. For technical nutrients
generally being part of durables, the realization of one cycle of re-use is a significant
improvement already, and hardly feasible at 100% on earth. In space, disposal after single use
is the rule so far, and in (too) many cases on earth as well. Biology, on the contrary, is truely
cyclic by nature. Therefore, any consideration of bioprocesses must be seen in a - however
limited - biosphere environment, based on cyclic processes, to be reinforced by supply of
material from space crafts. This true C2C approach requires that the chemicals used in these
cyclic processes are non-toxic, fully recyclable - thereby closing the material loop, use
renewable energy for the manufacturing and for the supply chain, and conserve environmental
quality.
The idea of C2C for biological materials is that they are produced by biological processes, can
be used as precursors for the technical cycle, and are non-toxic and so can be easily degraded.
An example is high molecular weight polymers that are broken down by microorganisms
producing water, carbon dioxide and biomass, giving them the characteristics of a biological
nutrient which can be input back into the biological cycle. Toxicity is defined by toxicity assays
and excludes chemical such as chloroprenes, heavy metals (Pb, Hg, Cd, Cr+6), and other highrisk
chemicals. However, the C2C concept also requires that non-biological materials (i.e. the
technical nutrients) can be input to the biological cycle, for example many biological processes
require metal salts (e.g. associated with the space craft) such as cobalt (Co), iron (Fe),
manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) etc. in order to catalyze oxidation processes which, under the
action of heat and light, will break chemical bonds making the polymers biodegradable.
