New Invention: Triton Oxygen Respirator Extracts Air Underwater!

Something like this went around a few years back as a backpack. The problems are these - there's not much oxygen dissolved in water. For a combat swimmer in average lukewarm water, at 100% filtration efficiency you will have to move 40 liters of water through the gill system an hour. You won't get anywhere near that.

The backpack had something like 5-10% efficiency. So you're talking 400 to 800 liters an hour of water through the thing.

It's worse if you're in warm water or a depleted area. I'm talking the sort of saturation that fish can make it in.

The other problem is that the gill plugs up with dissolved crap in the water. And it does it fast.

Oh, and straight oxygen is real toxic below about 15 feet.

SORDAC screwed around with this as a way to stretch rebreather make up O2, it wasn't practical.

Jedi already had those...



Now where is my effing flying car and lightsaber please???

reply to post by MysterX


just to expand on some of the points raised by this :

1 - oxygen solubility rates - are not constant - and vary with biological activity , chemical pollution , temperature , salinity

this is especially dangerous - as the body does not react / respond to oxygen concentration in breathing air very well - the primary resporation " alarm " is carbon dioxide levels ,

the physiology is a bit more complex - but put simply - if CO2 levels remain at 0.03% [ normal ] and O2 levels fall below 12% the body does not react - and unconsciousness / axphixiation can occur easily - without the victim realisng there is a problem

but if oxygen is replaced by CO2 in inhaled air - ie the 0.03 / 20.9 % ration of fresh air changes to 3% CO2 / 18% oxygen - the body reacts instantly . and the brain knows that the body is in distress

thus - swim into a body of low oxygen levels and die

2 - oxygen toxicity - if this only extracts oxygen - not other gases - its dangerous if used > 10m - due to partial pressure laws

if this premise is false - see point 3


3 - gas contamination - due to chemical and boliogical mechanisms - some bodies of water have methane , carbon dioxide a, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide solution levels -

again dependant on solution levels - these can be toxic - and again due to partial pressure - theis toxicity increases with depth

- I can really see this only as a replacement for snorkelling in shallow waters

reply to post by MysterX


It looks a bit fragile to me.
If I had the money I would get a rebreather before I would trust the extractor for anything deeper than 20/30 feet. ATM I'm stuck using air cylinders.

Amazing technology! S&F.

reply to post by abeverage

I think James Bond had one before that. Moonraker maybe? Too many films to look through.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Low Oxygen Water ???? you mean H2O with less O ?? COOL DUDE!!!

xxerse
reply to post by ChaoticOrder

 

Low Oxygen Water ???? you mean H2O with less O ?? COOL DUDE!!!

, dissolved O2...

Don't want to be the party crasher but look at this comment from this Diving pro..

I am an Ex South African Navy Diving instructor and a qualified NAUI instructor for 28 years. I absolutely love the dream but in practice there is no way this will work for a number of reasons.

1. Lets say you have a lung capacity of 5 liters on the surface, at 10m the pressure doubles, ambient pressure at sea level is 1 bar/atms. At 10m it is

2. This means that at 10m you need 10 liters of “air” to fill your lungs. At 20m the pressure is 3 Bar/Atms and therefore you would need 15 liters of “Air” to fill your lungs.
The formulae to work out the pressure at a respective depth is simple : Depth divided by 10 + 1 = Pressure at that depth. The chances of this devise providing you with lets say 10 liters a breath at 10m are slim let alone 15 liters a breath at 20m. See point 2 for further explanation.
2. Pure Physiology. The human lungs/diaphragm are designed for for breathing air at a pressure of 1 bar/atms (sea level)maximum. If you held your breath and dived to 10m your 5 liter lung capacity would be compressed into a volume of 2.5 liter.
Your lungs/diaphragm would have to pull/breath against the external pressure of 2 bar/atms at for example 10m water depth to get your lungs back to the normal 5 liter capacity. The human diaphragm is not strong enough to do this consistently, if at all. Do this experiment for yourself, dive to the bottom of your swimming pool +- 2m and try breath through a hosepipe, not possible, you diaphragm is not strong enough.

Remember that a Dive tank is compressed to 200Bar on average. The first stage on the rig feeds air out equivalent or slightly more than the pressure of the depth that you are at. The second/mouthpiece is a simple diaphragm that releases this air to your mouth when you suck in and stops feeding air when you stop sucking.

3. This is probably the biggest reason why this will not work. Pure Oxygen (O2) becomes poisonous to humans when the Partial Pressure (PPO2) reaches 2. In fact it starts affecting humans less than 2 depending on the person. In fact TEC divers who dive with Trimix and CCR (Rebreather) divers try maintain the PPO2 at between 1,4 to 1.6 maximum. The PPO2 of pure oxygen reaches 2 at 10m and on normal air at 90m.

This device states that it removes oxygen from water so one has to assume that it feeds you pure O2. If you could overcome the physiological limitation of breathing against water pressure and the ability of the device to supply a full breath at a relevant depth you would in any case be limited to a maximum depth of 5m. As stated a wonderful idea but practically impossible in real life.

reply to post by MysterX


That is all kinds of James Bond right there.

reply to post by MysterX


This thing looks like an industrial design student project. I doubt if it is a real device.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

Pure oxygen is always way more efficient in space than Trying to extract dissolved O2, in H2O, it's not breaking the water molecules apart it's removing oxygen in solution.

This device pretty much has one application, and that is recreational diving. I'm curious to know the rate at which it can extract breathable air for the user. It's amazing it can pull the O2, out of solution but I see this working for "shallow" dives only, because we currently use mixed gas when diving any deeper to help combat decompression sickness.

Still completely remarkable.

reply to post by MysterX


Okay, I see a device that pulls dissolved O2 from solution in H2O, it can only remove air if it's in the water. Water is several times heavier than compressed air. It will always be more efficient, and easier for fire fighters to carry compressed breathable air than water that has O2 dissolved in it. As well, as a compressed Air tank runs down it gets lighter, if a fireman were carrying water with air in it it will not get any lighter and he will still be carrying dead weight.

IF they could make the device double at filtering out unwanted particles/gasses carrying the triton alone would be useful.

reply to post by MysterX


Prime example of how "art mimics life" I know i've seen Batman swiming with one of these and multiple times in various cartoons

That being said, if it's just coming out now, it's been in use for years with our military and seals alike.

Awesome find! I look forward to learning more about this.

I love the name of it too

reply to post by ignorant_ape


That works for me. I kind of like just floating along in shallow water watching the fish. Devils Lake in Wisconsin would be perfect for this device.

reply to post by Hijinx


Maybe if the firefighter wore a backpack coupled to a water source. As the water flows through the hose it is also flowing through the device providing air.

Would that work?

reply to post by TDawgRex


Indeed! I love rapelling there! I've been going to Devils Lake, Wisconsin since I was 5yrs old... HOLY GUACAMOLY I'm 31!!! Where did the time go!!! Wheeler Campground is also nice if you can't get in that 2yr reservation list for camping in the state park

It's supposed to be pretty fricken deep at that, i've heard... I wouldn't mind taking the triton for a swim and testing it there!

TDawgRex
Maybe if the firefighter wore a backpack coupled to a water source. As the water flows through the hose it is also flowing through the device providing air.

Would that work?

Here is another idea, just give them a air tank, much lighter, much more air, proven technology!

Can this device produce enough air to breath underwater in real time?

I noticed in the source article it says it extracts the air and then stores it. Why would it do this if someone is breathing it?

hellobruce

TDawgRex
Maybe if the firefighter wore a backpack coupled to a water source. As the water flows through the hose it is also flowing through the device providing air.

Would that work?

Here is another idea, just give them a air tank, much lighter, much more air, proven technology!

Air Tanks run out. If this could be perfected, they wouldn't run out of air and have to be rotated out.

Just sayin'.