SBIR-STTR Award

MOPP garments are designed to be permeable so that a soldier can operate effectively in MOPP gear while expending great energy over relatively long periods of time. Embedded charcoal systems are used to absorb chemical agents while allowing the garment to breathe. A major concern with these systems is that the charcoal will load with common battlefield materials and cease to be effective at absorbing chemical warfare agents. In addition it is possible for the MOPP ensemble to become physically damaged. Scentczar Corporation's Miniature Passive Indicator (MPI) will allow soldiers to check their MOPP ensemble for effectiveness periodically. The System will be packaged with the MOPP garments during manufacturing so that accidental degradation during storage can also be determined. When a soldier first unpacks the garment he/she can check it using the MPI already in the package and then periodically throughout the mission. Phase I of this study will modify a Scentczar developed passive indicator badge and reader system, already under development, for use in the Marine Corp application. Phase II will field an entire prototype system which will be tested in the field. The MPI will save military and commercial filtering system users significant amounts of money by allowing them to change out filters only when they are degraded rather than on a fixed time schedule. Example systems include gas mask filters, collective protection filters on ships and field shelters, and clean room filters.

Keywords:
HEPA Filter, Charcoal Degradation, Clean Room Filter, Charcoal Loading

This phase II SBIR will develop a complete Miniature Passive Indicator (MPI) system including badges and a reader to allow Marines to determine the Residual Life of garments and other carbon beds used in chemical warfare (CW) defense. In it's simplest form the MPI will be worn by a marine, soldier, or sailor in proximity to his/her garment and used to periodically check the efficacy of the garment. The MPI concept is based on previous Scentczar work for the Du Pont Corporation and most recently the phase I program in which a simple dye-substrate system was shown to respond to military environmental chemicals which load the activated carbon in protective garments. Phase II will: 1) develop an automated system for manufacturing MPI badges, 2) develop an entire military system around the badge, 3) test the system in a formal test program including performance testing and environmental testing, 4) demonstrate the MPI system in a military scenario, and 5) get the system ready for mass production. The market for the MPI system is very large. For example there were over one million gas masks manufactured in the past decade which could use the system.

Keywords:
Carbon Bed, Adsorption, Indicator, Residual Life, Residual Utility, Protective Garment