Method to turn astronaut waste into food

Scientists study the method of using microorganisms to produce food from human waste.

Scientists developed a method to use microorganisms to separate solid and liquid waste, create a kind of protein-rich and food-based adhesive , News.com.au reported today.

Food will be an important solution in space exploration, says Christopher House, a microbiologist at Pennsylvania State University. Bringing food from the Earth will waste space and increase weight, while growing food on spacecraft requires a lot of water and energy.

Food is an important issue on long trips.(Photo: Lab Manager).

"We envision and test the simultaneous handling of astronaut waste with microorganisms while creating a direct or indirect edible biomass, depending on safety issues. This idea It may sound strange, but it's actually a bit like eating marmite or vegemite butter, a kind of microbial adhesive , "said Professor House.

The scientists also studied the anaerobic digestion process during the experiment."Anaerobic digestion is the process commonly used to treat waste. The new point in our research is to extract nutrients and actively put them into a microbial reactor to grow food." , he explained.

This method is still not ready to be applied on spacecraft, but it can be used to create food for astronauts in the future.

"Imagine someone could change the mechanism a bit to get back 85% of carbon and nitrogen from waste and turn it into protein without using hydroponics or artificial light. That would be a great development. "The new method will be faster than growing tomatoes or potatoes , " said Professor House.

Now scientists have been able to extract astronauts' waste water on the International Space Station (ISS). Meanwhile, the solid part is released into space.