ORIGINAL: GMMAT

BUT....if it's all a hoax and I've been duped....it's AT LEAST as good as the rest of my hunting clothes!

During the processing the carbon becomes contaminated through the clogging of pores in the carbon with impurities and the carbon needs to be reactivated before it can be used again. For reactivation, the carbon is heated to a temperature of approximately 700° C. (i.e. the reactivation temperature) over a period of approximately 60 minutes. The heating burns the impurities which have been absorbed by the carbon.

The military also uses activated carbon clothing, commonly referred to as Chemical Warfare Suits. They are limited-use, disposable garments, not intended for multiple use, because, according to the paper The War Next Time: Countering Rogue States and Terrorists Armed with Chemical and Biological Weapons, the new JS-LIST suits worn by the armed services "provide 45 days of wear versus 22 days for the BDOs." These chemical warfare suits have several times more activated carbon in them than the suits currently being offered for hunting purposes; and they only last for 45 days! This document can viewed on-line at: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cpc-pubs/war_next_time/schneider2.pdf.
An interesting comment in the document states, "In addition they can be washed up to six times without losing protective qualities." This suggests that clothing made with activated carbon becomes less effective every time it is washed. It also suggests that after six washings, the Chemical Warfare Suits, which are made to US Government specifications, and have more activated carbon in them than the activated carbon suits worn by hunters, are ineffective after six washings! And yet, the loss of activated carbon due to washing, and the eventual ineffectiveness of the suits due to washing, is not clearly stated by the manufacturers of the activated carbon scent-elimination suits in any of their literature, or on their web sites. Note the reference to heavy perspiration in the following article, which will be talked about later.
The Government has also found that the suits are no longer effective if the humidity around the carbon is above 50 percent, the activated carbon is ineffective, because the moisture in the air (that gathers on the surface of the carbon) keeps any airborne odors from coming into contact with the activated carbon; which makes the suits ineffective. Because there is significantly less activated carbon in the suits worn by hunters than there is in the US Government suits, it is highly likely that they will be ineffective after 1 to 2 washings. In addition, the humidity level between a hunter's body and an activated carbon suit will easily reach a 50 percent humidity level as they wear the suit or walk to their hunting area, and it will probably stay at over 50 percent humidity as long as they are wearing it; which will make the suits ineffective.


Can activated Carbon Suits be reactivated as suggested?

In order to re-activate or "desorb" activated carbon a process referred to as "Pyrolysis" is used. To completely re-activate an activated carbon suit saturated with human perspiration it has to be heated to about 800 °C; or 1472 °F. And it would have to be done in a controlled atmosphere with low oxygen concentration to reduce the possibility of combustion. This is clearly stated in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Engineering and Design, Adsorption Design Guide, Design Guide No. DG1110-1-2, which can be viewed on the internet.
It has been found that simply putting an activated carbon suit in a household dryer on a high heat setting for 10-40 minutes cannot reactivate the activated carbon. Companies that reactivate activated carbon state that in order to re-activate activated carbon it has to be heated to temperatures over 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The average household dryer rarely exceeds 150-180 degrees. If an activated carbon suit is heated to 1,400 degrees it will catch fire and completely burn up; there won't be anything left but carbon and ashes.
While some desorption can occur when activated carbon is exposed to temperatures lower than 750 to 1500 degrees F, there is a point when the temperature is too low to desorb activated carbon. A Virginia Technical University study shows that activated carbon can be partially desorbed between temperatures of 100 to 649 degrees Celsius. One hundred degrees Celsius is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the extreme low temperature during which "partial desorption" of odors and gases may occur. However, as stated above, most household clothes dryers produce less than 150 degrees Fahrenheit; which suggests that the activated carbon suits sold to hunters cannot even be "partially regenerated or desorbed". (The above-cited study was originally available on the Internet by logging on to: http://www.ce.vt.edu/program_areas/environmental/teach/wtprimer/carbon/sketcarb.html)

How come the military doesn't invest in big dryers specifically designed for reactivating their carbon clothing instead of discarding it and issuing soldiers new outfits every45 days?

Seems to me that if reactivation was possible without burning up the clothes, the military would do it.

ORIGINAL: Arthur P

Not only does it have to be really hot, it also has to be done in a very low oxygen environment. Not the kind of equipment most of us have in our laundry room. Here's all you ever wanted to know - probably more than you ever wanted to know - about activated carbon.

http://www.usace.army.mil/publications/design-guides/dg1110-1-2/entire.pdf

ORIGINAL: hardcorehunter

Arhur P and BigBulls quit putting out the facts; it is irritating.How come the military doesn't invest in big dryers specifically designed for reactivating their carbon clothing instead of discarding it and issuing soldiers new outfits every45 days? Seems to me that if reactivation was possible without burning up the clothes, the military would do it. Am I crazy for this type of logical thinking?

Bloody genius’s wasting your lives arguing about carbon clothing when you could be coming up with things like alternate fuels. What a waste.