optimization of the carbon dioxide absorption (cda) and surface erosion (se) of potassium superoxide based respiratory air tablets using the taguchi method

Potassium superoxide tablets can be used in respiratory air regeneration systems within confined spaces such as spacecraft, submarines, coal mines and individual and collective masks. these tablets react with moisture and carbon dioxide in air and release oxygen. in this study, the effect of five parameters; the pressing pressure (0.5, 2, 4 and 5 bar), humidity (10, 15, 20, 25 %), catalyst additives (cuso4.5h2o, (cu2(oh)3cl2)2, cuo, tio2), h2o absorbent additives (sio2, licl, cao, sio2.al2o3) and co2 absorbent additives (lioh, naoh, koh, ca(oh)2) were investigated in four levels using the taguchi method. the carbon dioxide absorption and surface erosion were selected as criteria for optimizing the performance of potassium superoxide tablets based on the analysis of variance and the optimal conditions of each were evaluated separately and simultaneously. the optimal conditions for the higher carbon dioxide absorption and smaller surface erosion include the humidity of 15 %, pressing pressure of 4 bar, cuso4.5h2o as the catalyst, sio2 as the h2o absorbent and ca(oh)2 as the co2 absorbent. experiments performed in the performance test show that the optimized tablets in this study show a 28 % and 79 % increase in the carbon dioxide absorption compared to commercial tablets and pure potassium superoxide respectively. the results showed that the catalysts with copper cation had the greatest effect on the performance of the tablets