Nitrox / Oxygen?

Question

How is nitrox or oxygen made or how do you get it. is there a compressor that you can get that compresses oxygen or nitrox into tanks. Is there a compressor that makes nitrox?

Answer 1

Well, I just assume you're talking about scuba diving terms here.

A typical scuba diving "air" tank is filled with compressed air. This is done with a compressor, which just takes the normal surface air and compresses it into a tank. This "air" is a mixture of 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, plus 1% random other gases. Again, this is what you are breathing on a daily basis in normal life.

Nitrox is a term for air mixtures that typically have a higher oxygen percentage. Usually, when you dive nitrox, you dive on a 32% oxygen & 67% nitrogen mixture, OR 36% oxygen and 63% nitrogen mixture. These mixtures should only be created by specially trained, certified "blenders." They have very special gear, lots of training, and many safety precautions, as dealing with high percentages of oxygen is dangerous and highly explosive. When the oxygen is blended down to nitrox though, it is completely safe.

Any dive shop can give you a compressed air fill. To get nitrox, you need a tank that is specially devoted to nitrox only (you can rent them), although your reg and BC can be used with either air or nitrox blends up to 40%. You can only get Nitrox fills at shops that offer them, look for a green and yellow flag. Also, any decent dive shop will require you to show a certification card to get an air fill, and a nitrox specialty card to get a nitrox fill. If you ever dive nitrox, make sure to test the mixture before diving on it.

Let me know if you have anymore questions about it, I could go on for hours! Good luck!

Answer 2

The previous Yamster has some wonderful information, but she didn't mention one important fact - the compressor that is used in a SCUBA shop has to be certified to ensure that it has the proper filters so that the air is clean and dry that goes into the tank.

Every 33 feet that you go deeper underwater the air molecules are compressed by half. So if you have a ping pong ball for example, at 33 feet it is compressed to half the size and implodes. It's 1/4 the size at 66 feet, 1/8 at 99 feet, and so on. When you do these deep dives, your lungs are still breathing in the same volume of air, but the concentration of oxygen is greater. This gives you a light headed feeling the deeper you go. When you dive on Nitrox, this effect is deminished and it is safer.

Bottom line, you don't want to use regular outside air compressor or you will also be breathing a concentration of gas fumes and other pollution when diving. People have died when this mistake was made.

Answer 3

I'll keep it short, first you need to empty your tank, it should "technically" be cleaned for nitrox as well. Then a certain psi of pure oxygen is slowly pumped in and then it is filled with regular compressed air. This is an exact science though only an expert who is trained and certified as a gas blender has any right to doing this. You should never try it your self because if done wrong your blend could be lethal at depth or you could blow your self up trying to fill it. ScubaBob is the gas blending expert here.