Can O2 really Expire

[jmoonstyle]

My buddy owns a duplex and recently evicted a tenant. They had a medical O2 tank they left in the basement. I was pretty excited about the score until I found out you can only refill with a prescription otherwise you need to have connections.

Anyway the tank is about half full (guessing since the gauge shows there is air in it) but it has a use by April 2013. Is that something the medical field is required to put on it? how can o2 go bad if it is in a sealed tank?

I am brewing a double IPA this weekend and would love to use the tank and my brothers air stone to get the o2 level a little higher than my drill aerator but would hate to contaminate the beer, am i crazy for still wanting to use this expired o2?


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[Homercidal]

If it sits around too long it can oxidize.

 

[Homercidal]

t's probably ok as long as the valve was closed.

 

[AerationStation]

If it sits around too long it can oxidize.

Can you oxidize oxygen?

 

[jekeane]

The expiration date is based on the lifespan of the actual tank. Tanks are rated for 5 years of pressure holding and that is what the date refers to, not the "freshness" of the oxygen. Can Oxygen go bad? If the tank has been compromised internally, yes.

 

[WayFrae]

I think you should be good to go. The FDA requires basically anything medical related to have an expiration date. I work at a gold refinery and I have a regular customer that owns a company that sells eyelid weights for stroke patients. They are made of 24 karat gold but the FDA puts an expiration date on them. So when they expire he can't sell them to hospitals so he sells them to the refinery.

You should be able to get it filled at a welding gas supplier I would think. At work, we get our oxygen tanks filled from AirGas for our oxygen/acetylene torches. Maybe they won't fill it because it is a medical tank though, you would have to check.

 

[jmoonstyle]

thanks guys, the expiration date wasn't the tank hydro test date it was a sticker placed on the tank by whoever filled it. I will have to check the tank test date.

Also Someone would have to explain to me how Oxygen can oxidize.

So gold has an expiration, haha tell him that I will take his expire gold off his hands at no cost to him.


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[WayFrae]

Also Someone would have to explain to me how Oxygen can oxidize.

I think he was joking but I'm not entirely sure haha

 

[urg8rb8]

Can you oxidize oxygen?

It was a joke. Oxidation means to bond a chemical with oxygen.

 

[mwmcgill]

It won't go bad. Those E Tanks of O2 are often in patients homes for years. As long as the valve is closed securely on top. When the tank empties though, you may as well give it back to the provider. Those are expensive and you won't be able to get it filled anyway. They would appreciate it.


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[StMarcos]

Oxidation means losing an electron.

 

[DesignatedDrinker]

The expiration date is based on the lifespan of the actual tank. Tanks are rated for 5 years of pressure holding and that is what the date refers to, not the "freshness" of the oxygen. Can Oxygen go bad? If the tank has been compromised internally, yes.

+1, tho its not the life of the tank but the date which the tank needs to be serviced, same goes for any compressed gas tank, CO², O², etc.

 

[jmoonstyle]

thanks everyone. The tank has a date of 2015, the tank was sealed when i found it I just have no idea how long the o2 has been it just that someone placed a sticker on it that says the gas expires in April 2013.

Hope the Beer turns out!

Thanks for the input!


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[Barny]

Oxidation means losing an electron.

Slightly old thread but I think (and I could be wrong) that you mean ionization, not oxidation.

 

[MindenMan]

Any given tank, at a given pressure, will have (x) cubic feet of O2, but there is a glitch, if your (full) tank at 2200 psi has 72 cubic feet, then, at 1100 psi, it has 36 cubic feet left, right? Nope. At 1/2 pressure, the tank now holds 1/4 the original volume. It's Boyles Law, ask your gas supplier.

 

[kaconga]

Slightly old thread but I think (and I could be wrong) that you mean ionization, not oxidation.

Since it is such an old thread....

Well actually where he went wrong was losing an electron is the reduction part of a redox reaction. Oxidation means to gain an electron in chem terms.

 

[StMarcos]

Slightly old thread but I think (and I could be wrong) that you mean ionization, not oxidation.

Nope, that's what it is....

 

[beyernk]

+1, tho its not the life of the tank but the date which the tank needs to be serviced, same goes for any compressed gas tank, CO², O², etc.

I'm a firefighter at a Naval Airfield, and our refillable O2 tanks for our EMT gear have expiration dates, but over on the maintenance side of our airfield, all the non-refillable O2 tanks used by the welders never expire.

 

[etownmickey]

Through an uninteresting series of events I've obtained a couple of medical oxygen concentrators (deliver almost pure O2 harvested from the atmosphere). Where's a good place to read up on using oxygen for brewing?

 

[jwelch1103]

I know this is an old thread but I can't resist. :cross:

Oxygen (i.e. O2) can not "spoil". If it could, most of it would have spoiled long ago, billions and billions of years ago as Mr. Sagan would say.

I do not know how a highly pressurized tank of oxygen could become contaminated internally. Any contaminant would have to be at a higher pressure to even get inside the bottle. However, oil or some other flammable substance on the exterior of the valve or in the regulator can and will create a VERY dangerous situation. Never oil a regulator and always ensure the threads and other exterior portions of an oxygen tank's regulator interface are clean and dry before attaching the regulator.

As far as an expiration date other than the bottle's hydrostatic testing date, I can only imagine that that is a legal/liability shield of sorts, if you will. Since there are apparently tens or hundreds of thousands of underemployed lawyers who are more than willing to file a tort claim in order to exact "justice" on a money hungry company, of course these counselors themselves are not money hungry at all, that's why they do tort claims pro bono!

With that being said here is my disclaimer: The contents of all material available in this post are provided as a free service, intended to provide useful information for interested persons. While I make every effort to present accurate and reliable information on this Internet site, I do not endorse, approve or certify such information, nor do I guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, timeliness or correct sequencing of such information. Use of such information is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy and timeliness.

Whew, makes me want to re-read Shakespeare's Henry VI, specifically Dick the Butcher's comments in Part 2.....

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Only a governmental agency could insist that a chemical element might expire. If you can find it on the periodic table of the elements, it's stuck in it's spot on the table. Moving it on the table, changing one element into another, takes some sort of nuclear event.

The worst part is that they insist on being taken seriously.

 

[kaconga]

Only a governmental agency could insist that a chemical element might expire. If you can find it on the periodic table of the elements, it's stuck in it's spot on the table. Moving it on the table, changing one element into another, takes some sort of nuclear event.

The worst part is that they insist on being taken seriously.

Something you might be interested to know, it isn't the gas inside that is considered expired, it is the medical device designed to deliver the gas. Everything that is classified as a medical device is required to have an expiration date on it not because it will expire at that date but to insure that the public is getting the most current medical devices and not some outdated piece of junk. Is it fine for brewing? Absolutely! Would you risk someone's life on it? I wouldn't personally, maybe I am just a believer that when lives are at stake there is never a "good enough" option that I feel comfortable with when a superior alternative exists.

 

[beyernk]

Only a governmental agency could insist that a chemical element might expire. If you can find it on the periodic table of the elements, it's stuck in it's spot on the table. Moving it on the table, changing one element into another, takes some sort of nuclear event.

The worst part is that they insist on being taken seriously.

Although it might take a nuclear event to bump oxygen up a notch to form fluorine, how ever it only takes a little moisture and oxygen to convert Fe (iron) into Fe2O3 (rust). Oxidation and natural chemical reactions and corrosion are the most typical reasons for stamping expiration dates on things.

 

[fatcop]

I know this is an old thread but I can't resist. :cross:

Oxygen (i.e. O2) can not "spoil". If it could, most of it would have spoiled long ago, billions and billions of years ago as Mr. Sagan would say.

I do not know how a highly pressurized tank of oxygen could become contaminated internally. Any contaminant would have to be at a higher pressure to even get inside the bottle. However, oil or some other flammable substance on the exterior of the valve or in the regulator can and will create a VERY dangerous situation. Never oil a regulator and always ensure the threads and other exterior portions of an oxygen tank's regulator interface are clean and dry before attaching the regulator.

As far as an expiration date other than the bottle's hydrostatic testing date, I can only imagine that that is a legal/liability shield of sorts, if you will. Since there are apparently tens or hundreds of thousands of underemployed lawyers who are more than willing to file a tort claim in order to exact "justice" on a money hungry company, of course these counselors themselves are not money hungry at all, that's why they do tort claims pro bono!

With that being said here is my disclaimer: The contents of all material available in this post are provided as a free service, intended to provide useful information for interested persons. While I make every effort to present accurate and reliable information on this Internet site, I do not endorse, approve or certify such information, nor do I guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, timeliness or correct sequencing of such information. Use of such information is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy and timeliness.

Whew, makes me want to re-read Shakespeare's Henry VI, specifically Dick the Butcher's comments in Part 2.....

No, you're wrong. They are afraid over time oxygen will seep into the system ruining the precious batch of oxygen, effectively making O3 aka OZONE.:rockin:

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Something you might be interested to know, it isn't the gas inside that is considered expired, it is the medical device designed to deliver the gas. Everything that is classified as a medical device is required to have an expiration date on it not because it will expire at that date but to insure that the public is getting the most current medical devices and not some outdated piece of junk. Is it fine for brewing? Absolutely! Would you risk someone's life on it? I wouldn't personally, maybe I am just a believer that when lives are at stake there is never a "good enough" option that I feel comfortable with when a superior alternative exists.

Interesting thought. In medicine, as in the rest of the world, there are value judgements, financial constraints, insurance denials, and a host of other issues that make getting to "good enough" a challenge all too much of the time. I would not feel that I was taking any risk if one of my patients wheeled in that tank. It's in date for hydrostatic testing, and probably contains enough oxygen for the trip home. And yes, the oxygen is still oxygen.

Although it might take a nuclear event to bump oxygen up a notch to form fluorine, how ever it only takes a little moisture and oxygen to convert Fe (iron) into Fe2O3 (rust). Oxidation and natural chemical reactions and corrosion are the most typical reasons for stamping expiration dates on things.

True enough. However, every medical oxygen tank I have seen patients wheel in, or found in the hospital, is aluminum. The tank is question is in date for its hydrostatic testing, so oxidation of the tank probably isn't a problem.

The thing I have seen change over the years on these tanks is the style of regulator used. The newer ones are much more convenient for dialing in a 1.5 L/min flow rate, if that is what is required. The tanks don't last forever, but this one is in date for pressure testing, and the oxygen in it will remain oxygen to the end of time.