The vape. So portable. So healthy. For old addicts and youngsters who want to blow enormous smoke rings without coughing up a lung.

But the old smoker. Too late for vape to save her lungs. She must tote around a canister of oxygen to breathe easy.

Could vape technology help the oxygen dependent? Some only need the vitamin O when climbing stairs or performing feats of strength. What about vapeable oxygen?

One must have an oxygen containing liquid to release to oxygen, and something stable at room temperature and pressure. Hydrogen peroxide fits the bill. A lot of oxygen is glommed onto that water, waiting to be released in the life-sustaining vape. How much O2? My numbers:

How about this excellent reference on hydrogen peroxide (link)

1 ml of 3% H2O2 evolves 10 ml O2 gas 1 ml of 6% H2O2 evolves 20 ml O2 gas So 1 ml 99% H2O2 evolves 330 ml O2 gas

6 hours has 360 minutes x 250 = 90,000 ml O2 required 90,000 ml / 330 ml = 272 ml H2O2. That is less than the volume of a can of soda.

Can that be right? Checking against liquid oxygen with an expansion ration of 1:860 860 = 104 ml.

90,000 ml of O2 is a fair bit. If a person uses oxygen at 2L/min 90,000 ml of O2 will get them 45 minutes. But if you only need a few huffs at the top of the stairs, one vape container of peroxide will last you a long time.

Don't spill it.
-- bungston, Nov 28 2017

(?) Peroxide references! http://moveonstage....de%20strengths .pdf
[bungston, Nov 28 2017]

32% H2O2 for sale http://www.chemworl...EAQYAyABEgIaA_D_BwE
In 55-gallon drums (a bit more than 242 liters) [Vernon, Nov 29 2017]

Sheer genius. A cheap, beneficial advance that would benefit millions, just begging to be developed and weaponized. [+].

Not only does this not require any power (silver decomposes peroxide catalytically) but could be used in a fuel cell to release oxygen while charging a mobile phone.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 28 2017


Given the current fear of terrorism (high concentration hydrogen peroxide can be used to make bombs), you're not going to be able to use high test peroxide. It's moderately dangerous stuff anyway. It's widely available at 3-6% concentrations, so that would presumably be okay. Maybe you could go a little higher, but there would be regulatory complications.
-- Loris, Nov 29 2017


I happen to know someone who needs oxygen because of having been a smoker, and this need can be measured in terms of liters of O2 per minute --usually 2 or 2.5 (2000 or 2500 ml per minute).

This Idea appears to lack sufficient oxygen-production capacity to be as useful as one might hope.
-- Vernon, Nov 29 2017


//This Idea appears to lack sufficient oxygen-production capacity to be as useful as one might hope.//

To be fair, bungston's calculation gave a result based on the demand you mention. Admittedly, it was based on using HTP, but the volume required was small.

In addition, oxygen cylinders are heavy things in themselves due to the pressure hull. Keeping the oxygen locked up in peroxide does have the advantage of making that unnecessary, so it might be a win for some purposes.
-- Loris, Nov 29 2017


// oxygen cylinders are heavy things in themselves //

They don't need to be.

Most oxygen cylinders are made from cast steel, which is heavy, but durable and relatively cheap. The metallurgy is well understood.

It's possible to make lightweight cylinders - out of Titanium, steel wrapped with carbon fibre, and several other techniques, but they're expensive, size is limited, and they're not as rugged.

Lightweight SCUBA tanks are becoming more common, but handling pure oxygen under high pressure is rather more of a challenge than plain air; disregard those USE NO OIL tags at your peril ...
-- 8th of 7, Nov 29 2017


ooh, a couple of tanks full of hi-test H2O2 strapped to your back... what could possibly go wrong ?
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 29 2017


We refer you to the extensive documents relating to the ME163 'Komet', its rather patchy operational safety record (which even managed to make that notorious 'flying coffin', the Starfighter, look good), and the tragically low proportion of pilots that survived training, let alone combat.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 29 2017



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