Potato Peel Oxygen Generator

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Following on from ADRs excellent experimentation:

I foolishly left my oxygen cylinder at the winery so I needed to make up something simple and cheap.

Materials and methods:

h2o2_1

One strip of potato peel, one length of silicone tubing, two cable ties, 30% peroxide and a piece of stainless rod (as a weight).

Sanitise everything except the peroxide and the potato peel by boiling.

Seal off one end of silcone tubing, add 1 ml peroxide and strip of poatato peel, seal other end, spray with sanitiser.

h2o2_2

Throw into wort at yeast pitch.

The idea is that the catalase in the potato peel catalyses the breakdown of the peroxide to water and oxygen, the oxygen then permeates through the silcone tubing into the wort.

1ml x 0.3 g/ml H2O2 = 0.3g. 16/34 x 0.3 = 140mg, 140mg / 15 litres = 9.4 mg/l O2.

The permeability of this tubing is enough for the O₂ to dissipate well inside 24 hours.

Just to check that my calculations were correct I made up another one and placed it into a glass of water. The peroxide breakdown seemed to be complete in about 15 minutes (though I guess this will be very dependent on the potato peel). After an hour or so the diffusion of the oxygen through the silicone became very obvious. In wort which isn't already saturated with oxygen and where yeast is actively scavenging, I expect it would dissolve directly into the wort.

h2o2_3

In the spirit of experimentation I split the wort in two and only threw the oxygenator in one (after pitching). A slight complication is that I added oleic acid to the yeast during the bulk up.

Hey mods: the old software did subscripts and superscripts in the top panel. I can't find them in the new software. Many downvotes from me.

 

[peteru]

Neato!

I'm going to have to have a go at this! Extremely simple and cost effective.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

The silicone tubing I used is a special high permeability tubing, not generally available: I had about a thousand metres made to my specs by a company in Denmark some years ago, almost all of it got used for the project for which it was ordered.

The closest I can find off the shelf is item no 310 0810 from Gecko Optical. You'll need to use a slightly greater length, say 15mm per litre of wort.

 

[Adr_0]

That's awesome... my biggest issue now is getting experimental batches out of the way as the results can be hit and miss and take some of the enjoyment/reward out of the beer. As useful and satisfying as it is, information doesn't taste and nice as a well brewed batch of beer.

Funnily enough I was about to recommend those guys as I've found a number of uses for their silicone tubing. I originally bought some 10mm OD x 6mm ID to use for penetrations into my mash tun and kettle lids, but have also used it for sealing around false bottoms and distribution trays - great stuff. Now I've found another use...

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

The permeability is proportional to surface area / wall thickness, you'll find the tubing you have has less than half the permeability of the tubing I recommended.

 

[Matplat]

Is it just those dimensions that permeability is proportional to, or is it also to do with however the silicone is actually manufactured?

I have some cheap chinese silicone that probably has 1mm wall thickness... Ultimately I'l experiment in water, and see if it look like yours after an hour.

 

[Adr_0]

The permeability is proportional to surface area / wall thickness, you'll find the tubing you have has less than half the permeability of the tubing I recommended.

Good pickup - i'll grab some of that.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Is it just those dimensions that permeability is proportional to, or is it also to do with however the silicone is actually manufactured?

It's a function of the dimensions mentioned, the void space within the polymer and the solubility of oxygen in the polymer. There are small variations between silicones with different types of cure and average MW. The biggest difference we found was in how quickly the permeability dropped over time, which we assumed was due to fouling, but that was in an application where the silicone was immersed in wine for weeks at a time. The Danish manufacturer's product stayed stable for many weeks, some trial tubing we bought off the shelf fouled very quickly. In red wine you could detect the fouling because the tubing changed colour.

BTW I'm working on something that will be simpler, cheaper and won't involve chemicals but it's under wraps for now as it's related to something on which I'm applying for IP protection and I don't want to risk the IP application.

 

[n87]

I can see a market for glow stick style, single use oxy sticks.

boil, crack in half, throw in wort... oxygenation sorted

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

That would be really easy to make. Seal the peroxide in a glass ampoule, coat the outside with manganese dioxide, seal in a silicone tube.

To use, crack the glass ampoule.

If you want to try this, a cheap source of manganese dioxide is a standard zinc carbon battery. You can buy sealable ampoules from a lab supply, the trick is to seal the end without heating the contents. If you hold the ampoule in the middle you'll learn very quickly (or burn your fingers if you are too slow).

 

[n87]

If you can make it so it ends up being ~$1 a hit, I think there will be a fair takup of the people who dont have the dosh to throw ~$200 down on a O2 setup.
Sell in a 20 pack.

 

[Adr_0]

A bit of dried potato peel powder in there...

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

That's the organic option.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

If you can make it so it ends up being ~$1 a hit, I think there will be a fair takup of the people who dont have the dosh to throw ~$200 down on a O2 setup.
Sell in a 20 pack.

The silicone tubing alone is about $3.

The as yet unrevealed alternative is a bit of hardware that you could make yourself for $10 and will run indefinitely without needing any replenishment. Cost of use will be about 0.1c per 25 litre batch. As I said it's related to something else I'm working on so I can't reveal it yet.

 

[n87]

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

To be clear, I have no intention of marketing this. The device for which I'm applying for IP protection is for a different purpose in a different market.

Part of it is made of platinated titanium so it's in a different price league as well.

 

[Lionman]

If you can make it so it ends up being ~$1 a hit, I think there will be a fair takup of the people who dont have the dosh to throw ~$200 down on a O2 setup.
Sell in a 20 pack.

My O2 setup cost under 100 and should last for 100 batches before I need a new bottle.

What happens to the silicone tubes when they go into landfill?

 

[Radshoes]

My O2 setup cost under 100 and should last for 100 batches before I need a new bottle.

What happens to the silicone tubes when they go into landfill?

Not sure, leave anote for your grandkids grandkids, and when they work out time travel they might come back and tell us?

 

[Adr_0]

My O2 setup cost under 100 and should last for 100 batches before I need a new bottle.

What happens to the silicone tubes when they go into landfill?

Siloxanes, which then turn to sand in the power station generators?

 

[malt junkie]

The silicone tubing alone is about $3.

The as yet unrevealed alternative is a bit of hardware that you could make yourself for $10 and will run indefinitely without needing any replenishment. Cost of use will be about 0.1c per 25 litre batch. As I said it's related to something else I'm working on so I can't reveal it yet.

So if this piece of hardware were to continually make O2, it would need to be removed 24-48 hrs after pitch?