Functional Porous Sol-Gel Silica for Highly Efficient CO2 Scrubber

Current and future military force is moving to be lighter, faster, and stealthier in order to maintain an operational advantage. For example, a lightweight and small volume underwater breathing apparatus (UBA) is required to supply combat divers with continuous breathing gas in the water A closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) that provides divers with breathable gas from recycled exhaled gas is more accepted due to several advantages such as low weight and volume, long diving duration, and few, if any, bubbles. However, the CO2 scrubbing technology used in the CCRs to remove CO2 from the breathing loop has not been changed in over 50 years, which has a limited CO2 removal capacity. In order to meet advanced military force requirements, such as lower system weight and volume and longer submersible duration, an innovative and highly efficient CO2 scrubber technology is urgently needed. To address this critical need, Luna Innovations Incorporated proposes to develop a high efficiency CO2 scrubber system based on a functional nanoporous material. The proposed technology is expected to have a CO2 removal capacity 3 to 10 times as high as that for the currently used soda lime scrubber based on equivalent weight or volume. BENEFITS: If successful, this development effort will yield a highly efficient CO2 scrubbing technology that could be used in underwater breathing apparatus (UBA) and/or other undersea platforms. In addition to military applications, the developed high efficiency CO2 scrubber system would also be utilized in civilian and space applications such as recreational diving equipments, rebreathers for mine workers and firefighters, industrial CO2 gas separation, and space CO2 capture.