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To make a device which can allow you to breath underwater?

776 views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  Desolan 
#1 ·
How would we go about making a device which can take in the oxygen from water but separate the hydrogen element from it to allow people to breath underwater? How would you separate the oxygen from the hydrogen to get it into the breathing mask?
 
#2 ·
To make a device that can do so, which is small enough to not entirely encumber a diver, is a couple decades away. The technology already exists, but we're talking nuclear submarines which carry large components to process oxygen and fresh drinking water from the ocean, not for individuals.
 
#3 ·
I'm not sure you'd want to use electrolysis. The amount of energy required to create breathable oxygen would be inefficient.

What I would look at is how fish gills work. They can extract oxygen out of water organically.
 
#9 ·
I wonder if it would work to just cycle/bubble the exhaled air through the water and then capture the bubbles for reuse.

I've heard that one method of cleaning the CO2 out of biogas in order to get cleaner methane essentially does this. As the air bubbles through the water, the CO2 dissolves into the water, leaving the methane. I don't know if it would pick up more oxygen from the water though, but I suppose a little electrolysis could then be used to replenish it if needed.

I imagine that you would still continually lose some of your base gas as some amounts of nitrogen also get dissolved or lost.
 
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