by captnemo » Sep 5, 2016 7:31 pm
I have experienced filtering CO2 out from breathing air in two situations.
1.Fire fighting aboard ships in the military
2. During saturation diving operations offshore
In both cases the primary agent was 'soda sorb' a commercially sold mixture of calcium hydroxide and sodium or potassium hydroxide. This absorbs CO2 but produces heat and a 2lb canister was if memory serves only good for around 30 minutes and you have to replace the oxygen that is being exhaled. This is why re-breathers are complex, and expensive computer controlled devices to ensure the oxygen content is maintained stably. So I don't think a simple 'respirator' is going to do the trick. Try googling scba (self contained breathing apparatus) you'll see most firefighters now use compressed air cylinders as these are easier to maintain, replenish etc and generally safer then dealing with caustic chemicals.