When I first read the NASA article Sci-fi Life Support, I missed the textbox at the bottom. When I went back to post about the system, I found out that this built-for-space wastewater reclamation system is currently in use in provinces of Northern Iraq.
The article itself describes a spaceborne system designed to recover up to 93 percent of water from exhaled air and urine. Such a system will be needed for long manned space missions and in remote outposts such as Lunar or Martian bases.
Here’s the story about the Earthbound version:
ECLSS in Iraq — Since April 2006, an Earth-bound application of a portion of the ECLSS water recovery system is being trucked from one rural village to another in northern Iraq to filter particulates and contaminants out of dirty groundwater or well water to provide residents with clean drinking water. That portable system—about half the size of a refrigerator including all its pumps and computer controls—purifies water at a good clip of 4 gallons a minute, for a cost of only about two cents a gallon.
Image: ECLSS Hardware (courtesy NASA)
Technical details of ECLSS appear in “Status of the Regenerative ECLSS Water Recovery and Oxygen Generation Systems” by Robert M. Bagdigian, Dale Cloud, and John Bedard (Paper 2006-01-2057) and in NASA Facts “International Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System” (Pub 8-40399, May 2005).