Egbejimba Awarded Alaska Space Grant Funding from NASA
Joseph Egbejimba, a third-year student in mechanical engineering being advised by
David Denkenberger, was recently awarded a $5,000 in funding by NASA.
The project will investigate using hydrogen-eating single-cell protein as a food source
in space. Solar or nuclear electricity would be used to split water into oxygen and
hydrogen.
The idea is that astronauts would breathe the oxygen and also absorb the “food.” The
waste products of this process are carbon dioxide, which the single-cell protein use
to grow, and water. So it is a closed loop.
This project will be a collaboration with the Finnish company Solar Foods, which is
investigating the technology for present-day applications.
The NASA project will also investigate the potential of this food source in catastrophes
such as abrupt climate change and asteroid impact. In this case, the most economical
source of hydrogen may be gasifying (heating with no oxygen) solid fuels such as biomass,
coal and peat.
Joseph Egbejimba (L) a student of David Denkenberger (R) was awarded Space Grant Funding from NASA. Photo by Amanda Byrd.