Numerous inventors have been claiming that their device can separate dissolved Oxygen from sea water and almost none of them have actual working prototypes. It is a universally known fact that dissolved air in the water can amount to 2% of the total mass of the water but there are a lot of technical challenges present that make it difficult to harness enough Oxygen for a normal human being. Fishes have gills and they use it for a good effect but they are cold-blooded animals and they don’t need huge amounts of energy to maintain their body temperature and engage in heavy metabolic activities whereas mammals like humans do need lots of oxygen. This was one of the main reasons behind the failure of Jeabyun Yeon’s Triton device that raised more than $700,000 on IndieGogo but was ultimately scrapped and the crowdfunding page was also taken down due to lack of any working device.
Now Like-A-Fish Technologies, a company pursuing this elusive technology for 15 years is attempting to make its own version of A99 Aqua breather Jedis used in the Star Wars: Phantom Menace. Now the Maths in this thing speaks for itself why it hasn’t been successful to make one of these. We need to circulate 200 gallons of water to get just one liter of air for our breathing so the entire process will require a lot of work and energy and even then, the results will just mean that taking an Oxygen tank is much more suitable. But, one way such a device can be marketed and that is the green nature of it since Oxygen tanks require a lot of power both to refill and liquidate Oxygen and Nitrogen.
Alan Bodner, the brains behind this project believes that re-aeration is the path to success here. Re-aeration involves separating small amounts of air from the water and just like the fizz disappears from a soda container when it is opened. To achieve this, Bodner’s pumps pump water through 8 meters of narrow tubing. Then in a centrifuge, the heavy particles, i.e., water stick to the sides of the centrifuge and leave lighter particles at the center. But, all this equipment can in no way be part of a diver’s gear so instead of making a diver’s suit, he eventually conceded and made SP-350 Denise, a system for an Italian designed submersible that utilizes this technology.
In 2015, he founded the initiative alongside iNova to make clean energy platforms, not just for corporations or government organizations but also average people. He has named the sub with this technology Atlantis and rightly it has been named as the submarine with gills. Here is the futuristic-looking craft:
An iNova press release says:
“The Atlantis is the first submarine to be equipped with the ‘Like-a-Fish’ patented technology, a new system which can extract breathable air directly from the water during travel.This is why we call it “The Submarine with Gills.”
It can carry up to four people including one pilot and can last more than four hours in each dive beneath the surface. It has Li-ion batteries that can power the twin 40-horsepower electrical engines for propulsion as well as the re-aerator itself. Nice invention I must say!