Oxygen Booster in Manifold?

Dawktah

Hello!

I am in the process of deciding whether to build my own partial pressure manifold to blend Nitrox and in the future Trimix (Global used in picture as example). What I want to know is whether you can have the booster permanently plumbed into the manifold prior to the whips? All gas would pass through it requiring the entire system to be Oxygen clean. Therefore, the ability to boost is there without having to disconnect the cylinder(s) from the whip.

My thoughts are buying a compressor to fill via a tee 1) a two cylinder bank and 2) the booster. From the cylinder bank would be filters to get my modified Grade "E" air. The remainder of the manifold would have the necessary needle and slow opening valves that lead to the inlet of the booster? What I don't know is whether any of the boosters are designed to allow gas to freely pass through them or do I need to plumb a bypass loop for boosting?

I'm thinking once cleaned I rather not connect and reconnect fittings, risking potential for contamination and only design it in a manner to disassemble for re-cleaning.

With max. depth of 100 fsw and most sites in 40-60 fsw I'll be blending a lot of EANx36 & EANx40 until I get my rebreather.

Attached Images

Blending station.jpg (91.2 KB, 229 views)

Beanie

Why not stick the booster between the He and the O2 and the manifold?
do you need ot boost air?

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Dawktah

Thanks!

Most likely will not use the Global Manifold. Can booster be plumbed in-line or as a loop after the O2 and He? Are any boosters designed to work in this manner, i.e. in-line?

--Chris

Dawktah

Modified sketch, thanks Beanie!

Attached Images

Blending station 2.jpg (85.5 KB, 205 views)

cool_hardware52

I may not be fully understanding your question, but all boosters I've ever seen are "inline" A booster is really nothing more than an inlet check valve, and outlet check valve and something in between that changes volume, usually a sliding piston.

If the outlet pressure (think tank being filled) is lower than the inlet pressure (supply bottle) there's no need to cycle the piston. The two check valves open (both are open in the direction flow) and gas moves from the supply bottle to the cylinder being filled. In this case you can think of the booster as nothing more than two check valves in series.

Only when the inlet pressure is lower than the outlet do you need to "boost" or cycle the piston.

Tobin

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Dawktah

Thanks that's what I needed to know. I don't need to put the valves in to create a loop. As my gases Will be going through booster I will have to make extra effort to make sure it remains clean.

Chris

Attached Images

Blending station 3.jpg (85.7 KB, 200 views)

SteveL

toy are toys to be sure but that is a lot of system for nitrox and why the He if you are diving to 100fsw max - seems like Huge overkill.

but my 2c is that if you can keep the valves and other places that interrupt smooth gas flow the better - theses are great points to get heating and particle accumulation - which are not good for HP fast flowing O2

The valves in the booster are simple one way ball valves(usually) but they are designed to be pumping a gazillion tones of gas through in short periods???

Steve L

Dawktah

I'm not following you. So don't run all O2 and He lines through booster? In that case I would need to have bypass loop as in second sketch? Can ball valves be removed for check valves as Tobin stated?

In my original post I stated I wanted to plumb for He even though I may never have/use it. Capitalism drives everything though. I am going to be in the Caribbean and there aren't any LDS that can provide HP gases. Only one local partial pressure blender and they cannot give me O2 fills to 3,000 psi for my rebreather cylinders. Unless that changes in 12 months. Thus the need for system. I don't even want to mention their fees! There are deeper sites, I just don't have as much interest in going deep as for longer bottom times for photography. The drawing isn't a blue print I modified original drawing so it has more angles than will be in the installation.

I need to be able to fill hp steel cylinders for myself and wife until I get CCR, then I would need to fill O2 cylinder to 3,000 psi and continue to fill her steel HP cylinder.

--Chris

rjack

I would imagine you'll need filter(s) before the banks, not so much after.

You don't want the velocity (inverse of dwell time) through the filters to be too fast. Filters are sized for the cfm output of the compressor and if you just blast open your banks (intentionally or not) you'll make a mess. Possibly blow the guts out of the filters, possibly contaminate everything downstream.

So I'd suggest getting the bank cylinders steam cleaned.

Then continuous blend EAN36. To make 40%, PP a touch of 02 then add 32% to fill pressure. You could also CB 40%, but I'd prefer my compressor to be a little further away from the boom limits

Richard