Handling of Inedible Plant Waste

[JLefebvre55]

Determine the process for the treatment and/or disposal of inedible plant waste.

NOTE: less trivial. maybe just grow fully edible plants?

1. Get the water out
2. Some kind of recycling?
3. ...
4. Fully waste product -> eject (the same way as human solid waste)

[nchareunsouk]

@JLefebvre55 @narvcharv

• When grow cups are cleaned out, inedible waste is inserted into a macerator.
• The macerator grinds the waste into a pulp where it is mixed with water.
• The pulp is extruded in a long cylinder with a pinhole running down the center.
• The cylinder is dried/dehydrated and cut into "scrap pucks" for use in #77.

[nchareunsouk]

@JLefebvre55 @narvcharv @JonasMarshall

Option 1: Water Content Collection

• Plant waste is collected by hand.
• Plant waste is macerated in a blender.
• Plant waste is dehydrated and water is collected.
• Dehydrated plant waste is ejected into space.

Option 2: Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE) SWE is a process through which micro-nutrients and bioactive compounds can be extracted from plant matter and suspended in solution by using water instead of dangerous solvents.

Resources Food waste: a potential bioresource for extraction of nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds Subcritical water extraction of bioactive compounds from Orostachys japonicus A. Berger (Crassulaceae)

• Plant waste is collected by hand.
• Plant waste is macerated in a blender.
• Plant waste goes through the process of subcritical water extraction.
• Plant waste is ejected after the extraction process.

[JLefebvre55]

@nchareunsouk I like that there's two options - let's present both, and potentially for Option 2 we could mention re-extraction of nutrients (not sure by what mechanism though. See #83