Comment on The nuclear-powered submarine crisis
Hugin@lemmy.world 5 days agoAny sub could but only nuclear bother. They have the power generation to run the process and stay down long enough to need it.
Other subs run on batteries and need to surface to recharge. So making oxygen would reduce how long you can stay down not extend it.
TimePencil@infosec.exchange 5 days ago
@Hugin
I'm probably wrong, but AFAIK subs (navy war vessels) don't actually need much "new" or "introduced" oxygen when submerged.
Us humans breathe out just as much oxygen as we breathe in - it's just that it's contaminated with carbon - CO2.
I don't think that nuclear powered subs "generate" or "create" much oxygen for the purposes of life support.
Instead, subs use CO2 "scrubbers" that are replaced at regular intervals. (See space flight, especially Apollo 13...)
As stated, "diesel electric" subs ALSO need to either surface or "snorkel" when running on diesel to recharge their batteries.
@maniacalmanicmania
Hugin@lemmy.world 5 days ago
The scrubber absorbs the CO2 it doesn’t break the O2 from the C. So H2O to H and O2 to CO2 to storage in the scrubber.
Here is a link to the various methods used for the steps. www.marineinsight.com/…/submarines-get-oxygen/