02 Generation

[Jimmy666]

hi, this is probably a simple question. I am an ambulance officer and as such am always using medical grade 02 i wonder how this is generated; is it a chemical process? eg reacting something with water, or is it extracted from air? thanks any help would be appreciated. Just after some investigation is it just from the electrolisis of h2o if so how are they seperated?

[silkworm]

There are many ways to commercially produce oxygen. I can think of 4 right now.

 

1. Electrically decomposing water.

 

2. Decomposing potassium chlorate with heat.

 

3. Oxidizing hydrogen peroxide with potassium permangante in acidic solution.

 

4. Fractional distillation of compressed air.

 

I don't know which is the most popular.

[Jimmy666]

how is the hydrogen seperated from the oxygen after electrolisis?

[Dream Master]

During electrolysis, you have two electrodes, and these two electrodes (basically "metal" rods for simplicity sake...) are where the hydrogen and oxygen accumalate. During gas collection, these usually have a gas collecting tube over each of the electrodes so the hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are already separated anyway. If this doesn't you answer, hydrogen and oxygen can be separated using distillation (so when they gases are cooled to their solidfied temperature) as they have different boiling points.

 

DM

[YT2095]

I beleive that medical O2 is done by freezing air and then taking off the gas at the correct temp, also CO2 is added in medicinal gas to aid in assimilation, pure O2 wouldn`t be taken in by the lungs properly as it would saturate too quickly.

[ecoli]

I beleive that medical O2 is done by freezing air and then taking off the gas at the correct temp, also CO2 is added in medicinal gas to aid in assimilation, pure O2 wouldn`t be taken in by the lungs properly as it would saturate too quickly.

 

This way seems the cheapest to me.

[jdurg]

The bulk of all oxygen gas that is used in this world comes as a byproduct of the production of liquid nitrogen, helium, neon, krypton, argon, and xenon.

[chemfreak]

in dont know if this is medical grade(probably very low grade actually) but you can ad hydrogen peeroxide to activated charchol. (methinks)

[Jimmy666]

thanks very much you have all answered my question. and yes medical grade oxygen does have co2 in it as co2 triggers our automatic breathe reflex.