Alan,Yes, I suppose that would be possible but you would have to be careful with the design to ensure the air does not pass between the "cartridge" container and the outer container, and escape being scrubbed. Either a close enough fitting, or a seal of some kind should take care of that issue. Depending upon the design (straight through or radial) you will also need a screen mesh of some kind (window screen size) to retain the chemicals but let the air pass through. This will have to be sturdy enough to survive the weight of the chemicals after "packing". The screen material will have to be able to survive any corrosion caused by the soda lime. I think I've seen SS used, but I seem to recall that aluminum reacts negatively with the soda lime. I suspect fiberglass screen material might work, but it does not have the material strength to retain the chemicals and would require some other backing to give it some body. A web search for home-built rebreathers will produce many links that demonstrate a number of different configurations that could be applied.
My guess is that you are correct and some home-built version of a canister system could be built. The benefit of the micropore system is not only the cartridge configuration, but that there is no packing, settling, or blow-by with their scrubbing material. The efficiency of any scrubber is a combination of getting the air through the chemical with the least amount of resistance, but also ensuring the CO2 reaches enough chemical compound to actually be absorbed by it. The micropore product is superior in this regard.
Jon Alan James wrote:
Jon & Dean, Wouldn't it be simple to make your own cartriges ? Looking at your CO2 scrubber design Jon, you could make a couple of thecanisters that hold the absorbant & have an outer canister that they fit in to.The spare canister (cartrige) could be kept, sealed at the top & inside asimilarly sized screw top plastic container. Just take the new cartrige out of it& the old one in it. Alan
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