Enhanced Sorption

Microfibrous entrapped sorbents are best applied to processes where there is a need for high-contact efficiency removal of critical contaminants.

Polishing Sorbents and Composite Beds

An ideal application for microfibrous entrapped sorbents (MFES) is in composite beds with enhanced breakthrough times for multi-log contaminant removal. Composite beds are composed of a packed sorbent bed followed by an MFES polishing sorbent. This configuration enables the best characteristics of the packed bed (high capacity) and the MFES (high sorption efficiency and sorbent utilization) to be maximized to significanly enhance breakthrough time without significant changes in bed size or pressure drop. The effectiveness of this approach as already been demonstrated for gas-phase desulfurization.

Active Filtration Processes

The combination of low pressure drop and high efficiency contaminant removal also makes MFESs ideal for active filtration processes where there is a need for simultaneous particulate and molecular contaminant removal or high-efficiency, low pressure drop molecular contaminant removal.

• Fuel Cell Cathode Air filtration: Air-born contaminants such as carbon monoxide, sulfur compounds, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter are damaging to fuel cell performance. MFES-based multi-element structure arrays (MESAs) enable fuel cell air to be cleaned efficiently, enabling increased fuel cell life with minimal energy consumption.
  
  



• Personal & Collective Protection Equipment:
  Low-pressure-drop, high contacting efficiency MFESs clean contaminant-laden air without the excessive auxiliary power to facilitate air flow. Systems have been deployed ranging in size from gas masks (personal protection) to whole-building systems (collective protection) to protect inhabitants from variety of chemical and biological threats.