
Z. LU ET AL.
780
impregnated activated carbon as an adsorbent, could ef-
fectively remove ammonia from the exhaust airstream of
mouse habitats for a flight mission of at least 50 days.
4. Conclusion
A high performance, long duration exhaust filter was
developed by NASA Ames Research Center to remove
ammonia from the rodent housing Animal Enclosure
Module, and H3PO4 impregnated activated carbon was
used as its adsorbent. The odor evaluation results sug-
gested that the exhaust filter can effectively control the
odor from the mouse habitats during 45-day (minimum)
operation durations, and maintain the odor from AEM
units within acceptable levels. The AEM exhaust filter
exhibited more than 90% of overall ammonia contain-
ment efficiency. A better understanding of the reaction of
exhaust filter against the odorants in the AEM units
could be achieved through further identification of spe-
cific odor causing components in the exhaust airstream
of the AEM units.
5. Acknowledgements
The current work was supported by the NASA Ames
Research Center Rodent Habitat project.
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