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Previous work demonstrated that the Photo-Cat® developed by Purifics is capable of reducing the total organic carbon (TOC) concentration of 51 mg/L to below 0.5 ppm using Degussa P25 titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a photocatalyst. The work also showed that ammonium bicarbonate had a detrimental effect on the rate of photocatalytic oxidation, but did not prevent the system from reaching the potable water specification. Nanometer sized Degussa P25 is very popular and quite frequently used as a benchmark of performance in literature, but it may not be the most effective for oxidizing all waste streams. It is critical that each component of the water recovery system be optimized for power consumption and the effectiveness of the photocatalyst plays an important role in accomplishing this.

Currently, proposed water recovery systems for baseline space missions consist of integrated technologies to remove contaminants from graywater for reuse. Lacking in these mission scenarios and in current research efforts is a solid understanding of how photocatalysis might perform as a primary and/or secondary processor. However, one of the major hurdles for slurry-based photocatalysis is the ability to separate the catalyst from solution after mineralization of pollutants is complete. Purifics, a Canadian engineering company, has solved this problem with a patented separation device utilizing a backpressure cycled membrane and automated system (Photo-Cat®). Purifics specifically designed a pilot unit to be used to solve the water recovery problem for long-term space missions. Operating Purifics’ Photo-Cat® as a secondary processor, with and without ammonium bicarbonate demonstrated that the TOC concentration could be reduced to below 0.5 ppm.

The nondestructive testing (NDT) of automotive incandescent lamps to evaluate lamp quality during the manufacturing process is continually under development. Recently a method has been proposed to test lamps by measuring the current decay the lamp experiences during a two second light up. In the work by Lynn, tests were done on acceptable lamps and lamps with large leaks such as which would occur if a tip were broken off(1. ). In this paper, this method is studied further with similar lamps and compared with two other NDT methods which are currently in use and accepted by the automotive lamp making industry, namely “Spark Coiling”and “Digital Vision” inspection. This paper shows the results of the test methods when used on lamps with large and small air leaks and acceptable lamps.