SonoChem wins £150k Aqualunar Challenge for lunar water extraction

The Aqualunar Challenge - a £1.2m international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works - aims to drive the development of technologies that make human habitation on the Moon viable by purifying water beneath the lunar surface.

Naicker Scientific’s SonoChem System was named the winner by the UK Space Agency’s Meganne Christian at a ceremony in Canada House, London, where the team was awarded its cash prize.

In a statement, Christian, said: “NASA has set the goal of establishing a permanent crewed base on the Moon by the end of the decade. The Artemis programme…is supported by the UK Space Agency through its membership of the European Space Agency. Astronauts will need a reliable supply of water for drinking and growing food, as well as oxygen for air and hydrogen for fuel. 5.6 per cent of the soil [regolith] around the Moon’s south pole is estimated to be water frozen as ice. If it can be successfully extracted, separated from the soil and purified, it makes a crewed base viable.”

The SonoChem System employs powerful ultrasound to form millions of tiny bubbles in contaminated water. The extreme temperature and pressure created within each micro bubble generates free radicals which effectively eliminates contaminants.

Lolan Naicker, technical director of Gloucestershire-based Naicker Scientific, said: “Imagine digging up the soil in your back garden in the middle of winter and trying to extract frozen water to drink. Now imagine doing it in an environment that is -200°C, a nearly perfect vacuum, under low gravity, and with very little electrical power. That’s what we will have to overcome on the Moon. If we can make the SonoChem System work there, we can make it work anywhere, whether that’s on Mars’ glaciers, or here on Earth in regions where accessing clean water is still a challenge”.

Two runners-up won £100,000 and £50,000 respectively. The first, FRANK (Filtered Regolith Aqua Neutralisation Kit) from RedSpace Ltd, is a three-stage approach that first heats the regolith sample in a sealed chamber to separate off volatile gases and leave a liquid of water, methanol and regolith fragments. The liquid is passed through a membrane to remove solid particles. The remaining liquid is distilled to separate the methanol from the water.

The second, AquaLunarPure: Supercritical Water Purification on the Moon developed by Queen Mary University of London, uses a reactor to melt lunar ice and separate the dust and rock particles. It then heats it to over 373°C at 220Pa to turn it into supercritical water in which oxidation removes all contaminants in one step.

Ten finalist teams were each awarded £30,000 seed funding in July 2024 to develop their technologies in pursuit of the prize and provided with a comprehensive package of non-financial support, including expert mentoring and access to testing facilities.