Sanitary CO2 capture?

[shoo]

Question. I have a bit of an experiment with CO2 harvesting going on over here. Given that this appears to be working roughly as planned, I am now thinking about re-use, which brings me to sanitization and storage.

The question is ultimately: do I even need to sanitize? The thought is that the balloon is filled with nearly pure CO2 from fermentation. There is some moisture from evaporation, but that is likely to be mostly ethanol, given the lower boiling point of ethanol vs. water. Given these two together, it seems unlikely that any yeast or other bugs could survive in my balloon. If that is the case, I can re-use the balloon indefinitely without fear of infection as long as I store it properly.

Essentially, am I already sanitizing just by chance? Seems too good to be true, but eliminating having to sanitize the balloon for reuse would be amazing.

Thoughts?

 

[mongoose33]

I'd sanitize it every time just on general principles, but it is probably OK without.

What's difficult about sanitizing the balloon? Put a little star-san in there, rinse around, and dump out.

 

[shoo]

I'd sanitize it every time just on general principles, but it is probably OK without.

What's difficult about sanitizing the balloon? Put a little star-san in there, rinse around, and dump out.

Slightly more difficult than you would think. I discovered recently that mylar balloons have a built-in check valve, which you bypass with a straw, which goes partway up the balloon (hard to describe). It basically means you can't fully drain by gravity alone, and you have to include some sort of squeezing the bottom liquid up and out. Mylar is pretty fragile, so I'm thinking that doing so repeatedly will probably limit the life of the balloon. Still possible, but maybe not so great.

 

[triethylborane]

I would leave it slightly filled with CO2, if this is even practical for you is a different matter.

 

[Murphys_Law]

Why do I think about that “Red Bull” dude who rode the balloons into space and jumped every time I see your thread(s)?!

[emoji3]