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| Interior of the tourist submarine Atlantis whilst submerged |
Oxygen and Drinking
Water Inside A
Submarine
How Do People Get Oxygen and Drinking Water Inside A Submarine?
Ashish
Living in a metal tube hundreds of feet below the
surface of the water in an ocean, away from all the hustle and bustle of life
on Earth, surrounded by nothing but water and an eerie silence – all of this
sounds like the perfect recipe for an exciting and adventurous trip.
In fact, that is just a brief rundown of what life in
a submarine is like.
A submarine, as you may already know, is a special
ship designed to operate independently (i.e. without any external support)
underwater for days on end.
The most notable thing about all of this is that a
submarine “stays underwater for days”, which leads to a natural question… if a
submarine is constantly surrounded by nothing but water, how does it have
enough drinking water for its crew members?
Short answer: oxygen is supplied onboard a submarine
through pressurized tanks or an oxygen generator, while drinking water is
obtained by desalinating seawater.
Life support systems in submarines
Submarines have become an integral part of navies from
different nations all over the world due to their multi-faceted usefulness.
One of the most common areas of application for
submarines is the surveillance and defense of a country’s maritime borders.
Manned submarines are deployed underwater along a
nation’s coastal borders for reconnaissance and keeping a lookout for any
suspicious activity in the waters.
This naturally calls for a number of ‘manned’
submarines to be deployed underwater.
Typically, a submarine can support roughly 50-100
passengers.
So, what you need is a system in your submarine that
can take care of the water needs of those passengers, maintain a comfortable
temperature onboard, and most importantly, provide fresh, breathable air
without interruption.
How does the crew of a submarine get drinking water
onboard?
It’s not like the passengers have access to a
municipal water supply like we do back in our homes, so they have to figure out
a different and rather interesting way to get their hands on freshwater.
The question is, how can they get freshwater in the
middle of an ocean?
Think about it – what’s the one thing that submarines
have no shortage of?
Precisely! They are submerged in water almost all the
times for God’s sake!
The only fly in the ointment is that the water they’re
surrounded by is salinated, meaning that it tastes salty. Therefore, all they
need to do is somehow remove the salt content from the water.
And that’s precisely what they do. Submarines have a
distillation apparatus onboard that initially collects a given volume of
seawater and heats it until it becomes water vapor.
This desalinates (removes salt) from the seawater.
Subsequently, the water vapor is allowed to cool and condense and voila!
You have all the freshwater you require for taking
care of the needs (drinking, personal hygiene and cooking) of the crew.
Can you guess roughly how much water is typically
obtained through this procedure in a single day?
How does the crew get breathable air inside a
submarine?
Oxygen onboard a submarine is released either through
compressed tanks, an oxygen generator, or by some form of an ‘oxygen canister’ that
works by electrolysis.
Oxygen is either periodically released throughout the
day at specific time intervals or whenever the computerized system detects a
reduction in oxygen levels.
.
Removal of carbon dioxide
.
Removal of carbon dioxide
Remember that breathing is a two-way process – you
inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
In open spaces, we don’t need to worry about the
carbon dioxide that we exhale, but within a closed metal tube hundreds of feet
beneath the surface of the water, the carbon dioxide we exhale can become a serious
threat to survival if not removed periodically.
Therefore, in addition to supplying oxygen, it is
equally important to get rid of the carbon dioxide that is constantly released
by the crew members.
Submarine carbon dioxide scrubber
This is done with the help of soda lime in devices
called ‘scrubbers’.
Soda lime is a mixture of chemicals (sodium hydroxide
and calcium hydroxide) that’s used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
to prevent carbon dioxide poisoning.
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| A basic representation of a scrubber’s components and mechanism |
It captures the carbon dioxide released by the crew
members and removes it from the air through chemical reactions.
Removal of excess humidity
Excess humidity is bad for the inside of a submarine,
as it can condense on the walls and equipment.
To tackle this, submarines consist of ‘dehumidifiers’
that prevent the buildup of humidity within the chamber as a result of
breathing and perspiration.
All in all, the safety and comfort (as much as one can
expect while underwater for days on end) of the passengers on a submarine are
ensured, thanks to the sophisticated machinery onboard.
Even so, staying locked up in a metal tube hundreds of
feet underwater with no sunshine and unrelenting homesickness is a lot less
exciting than it might seem.
Ashish is a
Science graduate (Bachelor of Science) from Punjabi University (India). He
spends a lot of time watching movies, and an awful lot more time discussing
them. He likes Harry Potter and the Avengers, and obsesses over how thoroughly
Science dictates every aspect of life… in this universe, at least.
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