understanding Moisture water cycle in tank

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popolarbear

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Hi, im new to this board, im searching for info on the following subject on another website and stumbled on yours, so im reasking a question that ive not had much answers on my local website.



I'm curious to understand fully how water vapor cycles inside of a typical scuba tank. my limited understanding is that moisture is damaging to the internal tank. i also understand that in some limited very well set up stores, they have gone Thur very complex and expensive steps to remove as much water from the air stream. this is Thur various complex multi steps that each have benefits/draw backs to them. but one example is a very large ion-exchange resin bed that will ionicaly remove atomic water molecules from the inlet air stream, other methods of complex heating and cycling of the air as it passes Thur stages i don't exactly completely understand the chemistry or mechanical reasoning of how they work. Finlay many shops just have fairly dry air as a default of filling tanks indoors in a dry environment. no matter what method used some limited water vapor will eventually be inside under pressure. the various tank manufacturers have also methods of internal tempering that further resists the effects of water and oxygen on the internal surface.

my question is under high pressure what water is inside of the tank supposedly is as vapor not liquid. is that to assume that as a result of the high pressure/vapor phase of the water that it does not affect the internal of the tank as much. or what.

second part of this question is that rusting is accepted as an electrochemical process. in boats an actual voltage is measurable the instant an outboard or motor comes in contact with water. the voltage is actually molecules of metal ions moving across a gradient. in marine applications it is possible by understanding this chemical/electrical process, to reduce or almost prevent this process. example storing outboard in the down position in water is worst, storing outboard dry in the down position will have more electrical conduction to "earth" than electrically isolating it in the trim up position... taking this to the extreme storing your outboard on top of plastic sheeting and under a slight reverse electrical polarization will instead of rusting pick up random ions like electroplating.
......is it then possible to store the tanks over plastic sheeting also in a electrically neutral environment to further optimize life of tanks.
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oh that leads in to my next question, of understanding longer term storage stress on tanks. everyone agrees that should be stored under pressure, but is there an optimal pressure, either compleatly full or half pressure that is beter for tank.

my original question was mainly to understand what happens with moisture vapor in tank under high pressure.
because i noticed that there is a verry wide range in how varrious dealers are handeling moisture in the fill stations.actualy i think most are not going to any trouble to do the extreame removal. so the current belief must be that there is no problem with some limited amount of moisture in the tank under pressure.
ion exchange beds are a pain and expensive to maintain especialy if unnessessary.


sorry for long question. any thoughts or comments appreciated.
 
Boy, what a rambling mess. Your boat analogy is galvanic action, dissimilar metals in an electrolyte (water). Ions from less noble metals will corroded/dissolve before more noble metals, that is why zinc or magnesium is used as a sacrificial anode. Air is a poor conductor, but galvanic action does occur. The repairs to the Statue of Liberty were to fix damage due to corrosion.

I do not understand the ion exchange bed question. The removal of water vapor in compressed air for scuba is usually done from the use of a desiccant (water absorbing material). In compressed air most water is dropped out by compression. To remove additional water vapor, cooling the air helps, cold air holds less moisture than warm air. Most shops use storage banks, which will have the effect of cooling the air before it enters the scuba cylinder. Direct fills will usually result in the most water vapor intrusion if not handled properly.

Storage pressure should just be a positive pressure, I am unaware of an "optimal" pressure.

I will be at the GLSPS show in late February, look me up and we'll discuss your questions. I'll be the guy with all the old diving helmets.
 
I'm not sure what the standard moisture spec is for scuba but in the semiconductor industry we routinely made clean dry air that had a dewpoint (where moisture comes out of the air) of minus 100 deg F. This was done with dessicant dryers.

Here is a link that suggests that the dewpoint of the air inside the tank is a function of pressure. Even if the air is -64 deg F at 1 ATM, it could get to +28 deg F at 3100 psi:

Moisture In SCUBA & SCBA

So, if the tank got below 28 deg F, the water would condense on the surface of the tank.

This would suggest that you have very little pressure inside the tank to keep the dewpoint low. If I were to think about it, I would probably go for about 100 psi.

It is very unlikely that tanks around here will ever get that cold. It just doesn't freeze very often and the garage is a little warmer than outside. But this is something I should start thinking about. Steel tanks are expensive!

Richard
 
So, if the tank got below 28 deg F, the water would condense on the surface of the tank.

This would suggest that you have very little pressure inside the tank to keep the dewpoint low. If I were to think about it, I would probably go for about 100 psi.

Richard
.........THANK YOU.........
this is Exactly what i am tring to understand. were i am the out side temp today is 7deg f. lake water temp can vary from 70deg to low maybee low 40 deg. the coldest i have seen is 36deg under very special temporary cercumstances. ive seen some guys store their tanks in the basement or in areas of their house were the temperature will seasonaly drop to the 30's maybee even into 10-20's on realy subzero cold days. ...

I still dont exactly compleatly understand your equation. but this is what i think is key to this understanding. anyone else have knowledge in this????

ohh. Ionexchange or desicant i think is somewhat similar.. but interestingly not many fill stores go to this extreame of purity of reduced hydration..
 
I don't know that there is an 'optimal' pressure. It's pretty clear that storing my tanks at 3442 psi might not be good from a dew point perspective. Storing them absolutely empty is also out of the question. I would think any pressure above 1 ATM would be adequate to insure that water isn't pouring back into the tank.

I suspect the 500 psi number comes from the old admonition to "get back to the boat with 500 psi".

If you Google for 'dewpoint versus pressure' you can find a lot of information. Among the hits:
http://www.vaisala.com/files/CompressedAir_Dewpoint_WEB_Sept05.pdf

Richard
 
wouldnt storing a tank at 1 ATM(or slightly more) for any length of time, then filling to the extreme working pressure cause an internal mechanical shock that would be less if the tank cycled a less extreame difference between storage pressure and working pressure. just like if the tank would sit in a car trunk and have a temperature change from 99 deg to 120 a severe shock to the tank.(this is kinda off my original question )
 
If i understand correctly(the dewpoint formula relationship) by increasing pressure you increase the dewpoint point pressure. If this relationship exists then that would explain the benifit of storing tanks long term under higher pressure mainly as moisture benfit . also interestingly as a buyproduct of the gas temperature law, i notice that there is a benifit to fill your tank on colder days as the air used to fill the tanks would have the lowest amount of moisture. and since the total pressure is the combination of the partial pressure of the varrious gasses, the usable air might be in some ways significantly more!WOW.....Winter Air fills may be almost a collectable comodity
 
One reason that tanks are stored either full or near empty is that if the tank were to heat up, like in a fire, a full tank is considered likely to vent out the burst disc, where a half full tank might heat to the point of failure before reaching burst disc release pressure.

Properly maintained scuba compressors produce air that's EXTREMELY low in moisture. I think the real-world issue is the possibility of getting a wet fill from a bad compressor, and then you're kind of screwed either way. There has been some discussion about the acceleration of corrosion in higher amounts of O2, so maybe the worst way to store a tank would be with a wet HP nitrox fill.
 
If i understand correctly(the dewpoint formula relationship) by increasing pressure you increase the dewpoint point pressure. If this relationship exists then that would explain the benifit of storing tanks long term under higher pressure mainly as moisture benfit . also interestingly as a buyproduct of the gas temperature law, i notice that there is a benifit to fill your tank on colder days as the air used to fill the tanks would have the lowest amount of moisture. and since the total pressure is the combination of the partial pressure of the varrious gasses, the usable air might be in some ways significantly more!WOW.....Winter Air fills may be almost a collectable comodity

It must be some winter! We're talking about dessicant dried air at MINUS 65 deg F.

I think you got it backwards on the pressure dewpoint. As that temperature is raised, the water comes out of the air at increasingly high temperatures. You don't want the moisture to come out of the air and condense on the inside of the tank. Storing at high pressure in a cold location would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

The thermal stress of a few dozen degrees F in the trunk of a car is pretty much no problem. A fire causes damage to the metal so that one is a problem. In any event, the burst disk should protect the tank.

Even aluminum tanks are rated at 100,000 pressure cycles - 1 ATM to service pressure - over and over. I don't think there is going to be much of an issue storing tanks near empty. In fact, that's been the standard practice for many years. I don't do it because I believe an empty scuba tank doesn't even make a good hammer. If it doesn't have air, it's not useful to me. I have 16 tanks in the garage and they're all full and ready to dive.

Richard
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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