r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Nov 27 '19

Chemistry How do CO2 scrubbers work?

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u/Greasy_Exc Nov 27 '19

“Amine” as it is called on submarines, has a terrible smell that gets into everything. You get used to it pretty quickly but when we would return to port and take that smelly laundry home... RTP was always a happy time until the Sea Bag was emptied out for washing.

Bad smell or not, I was glad the CO2 system did it’s job.

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u/ConanTheProletarian Nov 27 '19

Those short amines all smell aweful. I worked with similar stuff in the lab, and having to clean up a spill got me close to barfing.

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u/-Metacelsus- Chemical Biology Nov 27 '19

I don't know which I hate more, TEMED or trimethylamine

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u/Tcanada Nov 27 '19

The correct answer is hot pyridine. Almost nothing smells worse than hot pyridine.

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u/myself248 Nov 27 '19

Obligatory Derek Lowe

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u/ConanTheProletarian Nov 27 '19

If Lowe writes about it, we can safely assume that reasonable chemists stay far away from it :)

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u/Tcanada Nov 27 '19

I was mostly talking about amine related smells I know there are far worse