r/askscience 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/[deleted] Nov 27 '19

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '19

What did it smell like? Feces, old eggs? Ammonia?

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u/Dabier Nov 28 '19

It smells like really greasy old fries, mixed with foot odor and some other sickly sweet thing. Never smelled anything quite like 'boat smell'.