Apparatus for the protection of air fed to a labor-protection or vehicle compartment

An apparatus for purifying air to be fed to a cabin adapted to be occupied by at least one person, said apparatus comprising:

• a housing communicating with said cabin;
• means for inducing a flow of air through said housing and from said housing into said cabin;
• a multilayer chemisorption filter in said housing traversed by said flow and operable at a temperature in excess of ambient temperature to absorb components of said flow;
• a partial heater upstream of said chemisorption filter in said housing for heating the flow before it enters said chemisorption filter to a temperature preventing moisture take-up by said chemisorption filter from said flow;
• a catalytic filter disposed downstream of said chemisorption filter in said housing for traversal by said flow for catalytically reacting components of said flow traversing said chemisorption filter;
• a main heater between said chemisorption filter and said catalytic filter in said housing and traversed by said flow for heating said flow to a temperature in which the water vapor pressure of the flow entering said multilayer filter exceeds the moisture pick-up temperature of said catalytic filter;
• and
• a cooler in said housing downstream of said catalytic filter for cooling the flow before it enters said cabin at a temperature suitable for said person in said cabin.