DIY CO2 – A submarine builder known from YouTube, Hank Pronk, is working on a diesel-electric DIY sub and pairing it with homemade CO2 scrubbers—using chemical adsorbent with a shift from rectangular commercial units to a smaller round DIY design to fit short snorkel-de
When you think you’ve run out of ways to build something on your own, Hank Pronk looks like he’s just getting started.
Pronk is building a diesel-electric submarine over on YouTube. and part of the project is exactly what most people would rather not improvise: a DIY CO2 scrubber. He’s aiming to keep oxygen usable while tooling around beneath local lakes—where the atmosphere can turn dangerous if carbon dioxide builds up.
For Pronk, oxygen isn’t the only problem to solve. Even if you bring oxygen tanks down. it doesn’t matter if you can’t remove CO2 from the air to make room for it. His approach is chemical adsorption, taking carbon dioxide out of the air. He’s drawing an explicit line to NASA’s old methods: using a chemical adsorbent like the Apollo missions. while also changing the shape of the scrubber design in the same spirit as Apollo 13—switching from square to round.
Instead of using a large, rectangular commercial scrubber, he’s DIYing a smaller round unit. The reason is practical. Because the submarine is diesel-powered. he expects to spend a lot of time at snorkel depth. when both the pilot and the engines can get clean air through the tube. In that plan, dives are supposed to be short. A scrubber that’s too big becomes wasted effort for that kind of mission profile.
If things go wrong—if he gets stuck on the bottom—his backup plan is simple: the lake isn’t that deep, so he can swim to the surface. And if he wants to stay under overnight to avoid bailing at night, he’s carrying enough extra adsorbent to keep going longer.
It’s not the kind of certainty most people can afford. There’s a reason almost every submarine featured on the site over the years is an ROV: it’s less about homemade subs automatically being a death trap. and more about the level of confidence required to design one yourself and live with the consequences.
Hank Pronk DIY submarine diesel-electric CO2 scrubber chemical adsorbent snorkel depth Apollo 13 oxygen supply underwater safety YouTube
So this dude is basically making his own Apollo 13 air system for a lake sub? Bold.
I don’t get it, if it’s diesel-electric then why not just run it like a boat and not go underwater that long. Also CO2 scrubbers sound fake until someone actually tests it like for real.
wait wait… is he using some “chemical adsorbent” like those aquarium filters? Cuz my cousin had a canister filter and it looked similar but it definitely didn’t fix air. If he gets stuck on the bottom and can “swim to the surface” doesn’t that kinda ignore like, how heavy a sub is? I feel like there’s a missing part there.
I saw the YouTube title and clicked like instantly, but half the time these DIY guys just say “Apollo” and everybody’s like NASA vibes. CO2 buildup is real, sure, but the whole “short snorkel depth” thing sounds like he’s guessing. What happens if the lake is colder, or the air exchange fails, or the scrubber gets soaked or whatever? Idk I’m glad it’s not me down there.