How Do Nuclear Submarines Make Oxygen?- Smarter Every Day 251
Why Hacker News recommends it
Go-to link when oxygen candles, CO2 capture or submarine air quality come up.
What it is
A Smarter Every Day episode from aboard a nuclear submarine on how the crew makes breathable air. It covers oxygen generation from seawater, oxygen candles and CO2 scrubbing with amine.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends rtkwe · 2021-04 · on “A CO2 capture solvent with exceptionally low total costs of capture”
Not sure if it's the same stuff exactly or if the cost includes reprocessing but there's an amine cycle that seems to be mostly closed that's used for CO2 removal on submarines. So it's just used to separate CO2 from the rest of the output. I think that's what this sentence is talking about: > Notably, it is projected that this solvent can operate at a regeneration heat rate of 2.0 GJ per tonne CO2 for post-combustion capture Smarter Every Day did a video on it and atmosphere management on a submarine more generally which is pretty neat. The CO2 scrubbing is around 20 minutes. [this video]
Recommends nielsbot · 2021-06 · on “Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica”
You might find this series from Smarter Every Day interesting. [this video] I didn't find a bit about how they make drinking water, but here's an episode about how they regenerate their oxygen on a nuclear sub.
Recommends CharlesW · 2022-04 · on “Nukes, nubs and coners: The unique social hierarchy aboard a nuclear submarine”
I really enjoyed this Smarter Every Day episode that talks about maintaining air quality on a submarine: [this video]
Recommends rdl · 2022-05 · on “Oxygen Candles: Providing Emergency Air”
Yes, but the context of this post was emergency systems which are purely chemical. For routine operations on e.g. a submarine, [LINK] As other people have mentioned, this is a great introduction to the topic: [this video]
Recommends helsinkiandrew · 2023-08 · on “Life on board a British nuclear submarine (2012)”
The SmarterEveryDay YouTube channel did a slightly more indepth series of videos aboard a nuclear sub, obviously still censored, but educational. [LINK] The video on producing oxygen was particularly enlightening: [this video]
Cites nielsbot · 2022-05 · on “Oxygen Candles: Providing Emergency Air”
Smarter Every Day did an interesting series of videos about nuclear submarines. They use these candles to help replenish the oxygen in them: [this video]
Cites tofof · 2023-01 · on “John Carmack on candles, energy and air quality (tweet)”
They burn at 600C (1100F) so I don't think you'd want to view the reaction directly; usually they have to be deliberately contained to contain the heat to sustain the reaction. [this video] (linked to correct timestamp) shows the remains of a burned one and loading fresh ones on a submarine.
Cites Retric · 2023-02 · on “Seawater split to produce green hydrogen with nearly 100% efficiency”
Yea it produces chlorine. Nuclear subs need to use reverse osmosis first to get around that problem when they want to produce Oxygen from seawater. [this video]