Electrolysis for oxygen supply for continuous blending

[pescador775]

Bigchris, what Hacker said. A dive club might be better able to pool funds and make more efficient use of a membrane separator. The group would need to obtain a LP compressor to supply clean air at about 150-200 psi. You would still need to buy O2 for high octane stage bottles or emergency cylinders. Theoretically, you could re-run a batch of NITROX and boost it, but that is probably the line in the sand. Only an oxygen compressor could raise the pressure properly. It would have to be stored, decanted with a regulator, filtered, and boosted again. A specially modified RIX SA-6 is available from a company in England but that is VERY expensive. There is a small oxygen compressor from Canada for about 1/2 that amount but availability is spotty from this small company.

 

[bigchrisb]

For those that were asking, my compression rig has been talked about in a previous post (http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=110554), and I have now uploaded a couple of photos of it in operation whilst pumping nitrox over the weekend. See

and

. As well as the power take off belt, I have a single phase electric motor that I use when filling tanks at home. Berg - I'm going to be in Melbourne with my boat and compressor etc over Jan, and keen to dive the subs etc. Give me a yell on chris@xgl.com.au if you want to meet up. I'm coming back on the boat from tassie on the 19th, and will probably be in the melbourne region for at least a few days. Same goes for any other melbourne based divers keen for a splash - scubaroo perhaps?

Chris

 

[bigchrisb]

Re gas flow volumes, I'm using a fairly small compressor (90 lpm), so only need to provide it with about 17 litres a minute of oxygen to get to 40%. My initial calcs suggest that this will need about 6 kW to provide this level of gas flow - a fair qunatity of power to be dealing with, but by no means impossible. It may be the case that I'm better off running a couple of ebay medical O2 concentrators - probably get away with three units in parralell to feed my little compressor.

Just sure there has to be a way to reduce the number of trips I'm making to BOC!

 

[pescador775]

Unusual looking rig. No doubt it really jams. Yes, I can see a possible solution in two 10 liter O2 generators. Platinum's 10 liter model, new, is USD1600 each. Wait for the sale. They're pretty heavy and shipping might be a killer also. At that price, the Dnax membrane is looking better. However, if any of these items could be found on sale/surplus /used it might be worthwhile.

 

[naclydogg]

Love that setup, now all you need to do is get your engine to run on hydrogen and you will be set.

 

[bigchrisb]

Well, most of the time its running on biodiesel produced from used deep fryer oil - that good enough?