Mesoporous CO2 Scrubber Materials for Underwater Breathing Apparatus Platforms

Current and future military forces are moving to be lighter, faster, and stealthier in order to maintain an operational advantage. For example, underwater combat activities require light and small equipment for the submarines or the divers to efficiently complete the assigned missions. Among those systems required by underwater activities, breathing air supply equipment is especially critical for performance in the underwater environment. A lightweight and small volume underwater breathing apparatus (UBA) is required to supply combat divers with continuous breathing gas in the water. Naval Special Warfare Command"s (WARCOM) current CO2 scrubbing capabilities are large, expensive, non-regenerative, and can impart significant breathing resistance in human powered systems. Development of a more efficient and regenerative scrubber technology will benefit WARCOM by allowing small, lighter, less logistically demanding equipment for recycling breathing air. Luna Innovations has demonstrated novel regenerable sorbent materials that have demonstrated higher CO2 absorption efficiencies than current state of the art CO2 sorbents.