Breakthrough behaviour of sulphur mustard, the deadliest of persistent chemical warfare agents, on carbon systems such as NaOH/CrO3/C, NaOH/CrO3/EDA/C and RuCl3/C has been studied and the data were compared with that of active carbon. Effects of bed lengths of carbons on breakthrough time have also been correlated. Thereafter, the effects of flow rate of air-sulphur mustard mixture, concentration and temperature on the kinetic parameters such as rate constant (k(v)) and kinetic saturation capacity (W-e) were analyzed and interpreted by means of modified Wheeler equation. Rate constant was found to be increasing while W-e was found to be invariable with the increase in air flow rate. Both k(v) and W-e decreased with the increase of temperature, however, no significant effect on W-e and k(v) was observed due to concentration change (0.3-0.6 mg/l). The values of kinetic saturation capacity were used to predict the service lives/breakthrough times of carbon beds (when used in filtration systems). (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.