If you read this headline “A team of researchers may have found a way to cut down harmful carbon dioxide courtesy of an inexpensive polymeric material” would you think of SCUBA? Probably not, but that is what you have us for. Can you figure out how it relates? Find out after the jump…
The intended use was a material that would help absorb greenhouse gasses, something that could line smokestacks and tail pipes of cars. This is all well and good but how exactly does it relate to us? Think rebreathers. There is no doubt that eventually we will all be diving on rebreathers but there are a few hurdles for the industry to get over before it becomes widely accepted. After expense, the major problem is the scrubber material, its bulky, needs to be replaced on a regular basis and is not readily available world wide. This is where polyethylenimine comes into play. The polymer created is not only cheap, not only does it work BEST in humid conditions (this has been a problem with scrubber material in the past) but it is reusable! Do you understand what that means?!? No more shipping big boxes of material to your destination, one of the barriers is coming down.
I was able to speak with Poseidon Diving Systems, and they mentioned a new more efficient and washable scrubber material in the works, my guess is, its along the same lines as polyethylenimine.
ISN’T THIS EXCITING!!