Carbon Dioxide scrubbing materials in life support equipment

This manuscript is an author version Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Contribution #293. It may be cited as: Wang, T. C. (1982). Carbon Dioxide scrubbing materials in life support equipment. In M.L. Nucklos and K.A. Smith (Eds.), The Characterization of carbon dioxide absorbing agents for life support equipment (pp. 1-21). Presented at the Winter Annual meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Bioengineering Division, ASME. OED-Ocean Engineering Division, ASME, 10. New York, 1982.

Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution 293

This review paper gathers the information of carbon dioxide (C0₂) scrubbing materials in life support systems. Four groups of scrubbing materials are classified: Alkali metal hydroxides, alkali metal superoxides and peroxides, regenerative types of adsorbants, and other methods such as membrane separation, freeze-out, and photosynthetic gas exchange are also described. The advantages and disadvantages of each material are also discussed in the paper. For short duration operations, alkali metal hydroxides are the most attractive material to control carbon dioxide.