New rebreather on the horizon?

[Dewit2it]

I had an idea for a air rebreather.  This one would seperate CO2 into C and O2 where the O2 could be rebreathed, and the carbon removed.  There would no longer be the need for O2 and diluent cylinders, as all you would need is the breathing gas cylinder.  This could make it much easier to use, as you probably wouldn't need the mixed gas training, however this could also work with nitrox and trimix mixtures as well.

Last night I ran into an article on decomposing CO2 using plasma discharge that would do nicely for this rebreather.  The only downside is that they are doing it with a pure CO2 feedstock and not breathing gas.  With a N2/O2/H2O/CO2 mix, there could be some nasty combinations formed.  With my work with Tesla coils, the discharges can form various nitrogen oxides, and ozone.  Add the water vapor and CO2, and you could get some nasties like cyanide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde.  Testing would have to be done to see what the chemical mix would look like out of the reactor, and filtering could remove most of the nasties.

At least the formaldehyde will kill and embalm you in one easy step! ;D

The only downside would be the power supply needed.  It would need a supply running at 25-50KV at as of yet unknown amperage.  You might have to go down with a car battery on your back.  And the power source would be the determining factor in bottom time.

This could be an interesting challenge.

[deep_al]

there are chemical CO2 absorbents that already do this, sort of...  I cant remember the model number off the top of my head, but one of the Russian IDA's used o2 producing absorbent.  you still need a dil cylinder though to make up for the changes in volume related to depth.