The launch and onboard storage costs of these resources is prohibitive. These factors drive the need to minimize the amount of materials that need to be launched into space and maximize the recycling of waste products into usable products. An interesting possibility to process biological wastes is Microwave Incineration. Microwave Incineration is a means of oxidizing inedible plant matter into carbon dioxide and water that can inturn be used by plants in plant growth chambers. Incineration of solid waste is one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of waste that is discarded, for the reason that microwave incineration is easy to use, is compact, is safe, versatile, the emissions are clean and environmentally safe and it is simple to hook up.
Incineration also ensures protection from infectious diseases.
The microwave Incinerator has two chambers. The secondary chamber is mounted above the primary chamber, and a gas passage tube separates the two chambers. The gases resulting from the decomposition of waste in the primary chamber pass to the secondary chamber where they are ignited. A catalyst bed is contained within the secondary chamber which consists of platinum group metals supported in a honeycomb. This catalyst is preheated using an electrical heater using microwaves at 2450 MHz.