(2019 Archived) Methodologies of Oxygen Generation on Venus

Having written this in 2019, and originally published in 2021.. when I was 15 and 17, there would be inaccuracies that I would correct here. Having removed it, I'm publishing  again, for sake of completion so that the efforts wouldn't have gone to vain: 

Oxygen is one of the primordial requirements of most sophisticated Earth-life.  We humans too need oxygen, as it’s fundamentally required to break down our food into usable energy, through cellular respiration. It’s for this reason that, Oxygen must be an essential component of any human biosphere – even for extraterrestrial ones. Simply, if were to live somewhere; that somewhere must have the Oxygen of which we’re in dire need of. If that somewhere doesn’t; then we wouldn’t be able to live there –That is unless we were to find ways to use the circumstances of that somewhere to generate Oxygen, or unless we bring it there.

Let’s assume that the pioneers who dedicated their lives to facilitate future colonization of Mars, already came-up a multitude of ways of doing so on Mars. As for Venus, some might be sceptical about the same: of generating Oxygen in Venusian circumstances. This scepticism is baseless, as there is a similar miscellany of ways of oxygen generation, there on Venus too.

Some of them are derived from methodologies that were initially intended to be used on Mars. But, some are quite unique to the Venusian environment. Moreover, some of them have Oxygen as a by-product with the bonus of interesting main-products, which I shall number on our journey through this part of the book. I’ve managed to plot a list of the alleged methodologies below:

1.       Electrolysis of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.

2.       Electrolysis of resultant Carbon Monoxide.

3.       Natural Photosynthesis.

4.       Artificial Photosynthesis.

5.       Electrolysis of atmospheric Sulphuric acid.

6.       Thermal Decomposition of Sulphur Trioxide.

The dominant gas in the Venusian atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide, which is found in the abundance of 96.5% – That is an astounding 82.7 Earth-atmospheres of Carbon Dioxide, which is technically ~5164 times more Carbon Dioxide than on Mars? As I’ve promised to deeply discuss before; this practically indefinite source of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide could be used for many critical and industrial processes, which includes Oxygen generation.

(I) Electrolysis of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: While under the influence of a catalyst like zirconia, Carbon Dioxide could be reduced into Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen through electrolysis ^[1].

2CO₂ + Energy → 2CO + O₂                                                                                         

Carbon Dioxide + Energy → Carbon Monoxide + Oxygen

This reaction would solely depend on an adequate source of Carbon Dioxide, and electricity. Since the Carbon Dioxide in the Venusian atmosphere is practically indefinite, with 42% more persistent solar energy convertible to electricity: there is always a perfect environment on the Venusian cloud-tops, for this reaction to take place. Moreover, as catalysts aren’t used-up in reactions, the Zirconia could be reused perpetually for this reaction. With regards to the products of this reaction: The (1) Carbon Monoxide is the major product, which could be further electrolysed to produce more Oxygen. It could also be used as a reducing agent in the Iron extraction. The Oxygen, on the other hand, is breathable.

(II) The Electrolysis of Carbon Monoxide: Similar to Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide could be reduced into Oxygen and elemental Carbon, via electrolysis ^[1].

2CO + Energy → 2C + O₂

Carbon Monoxide + Energy → Carbon + Oxygen 

Carbon Monoxide could be retrieved from the outside, but it might be a bit too sparsely dispersed, as it accounts for only 0.0017% of the Venusian atmosphere. Therefore, the Carbon Monoxide produced during the electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide is technically our only consistent source of it. But, it still would require more input energy to break the Carbon-Oxygen trivalent bond in Carbon Monoxide. Still, to make matters better, this reaction doesn’tonly produce breathable Oxygen, but elemental (2) Carbon too! It isn’t a bad trade-off! This Carbon could prove to be quite useful in many industrial processes, and fundamental in giving assistance to keep the Carbon cycle of the cloud-cities up-and-running.

(III) Natural Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is a photosynthetic Plant’s and Chlorophyte’s mean of synthesizing the ‘food’ it requires, while utilizing water and carbon dioxide in the environment, with ambient light and the chlorophyll in its cells ^[1].

6CO₂ + 6H₂O + Photons→ C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂                                                           

 Carbon Dioxide + Water + Photons → Glucose + Oxygen

Glucose, the main product formed by natural photosynthesis, is used to give energy to the plant during respiration and metabolism.The Oxygen, on the other hand, is released as a by-product. The mere growing of crops and mass-farming of colonies of photosynthetic micro-organisms could be an adequate means of oxygen production, by means of natural photosynthesis. After all, natural photosynthesis accounts for almost all of the Earth’s oxygen production. Moreover, photosynthesis would be more effective on Venus, due to the availability of 42% more ambient sunlight. It still comes with the catch of respiring at night ^[1].

(IV) Future Artificial Photosynthesis: Artificial photosynthetic technology, though still under development, would theoretically be able to generate oxygen as a by-product through the usage of receivable Carbon Dioxide, Water and photons.

CO₂ + 2H₂O + Photons → CH₂O + O₂                                                 

Carbon Dioxide +Water + Photons → Formaldehyde +Oxygen

There might be many possible means of artificial photosynthetic technology, but for our example; we use one which produces (3) the chemical named Formaldehyde as the main-product. Notice how in natural photosynthesis; twelve molecules of raw material will produce six molecules of oxygen (in a 2:1 ratio), while three molecules of raw material are needed to produce a molecule of oxygen (in a 3:1 ratio). Thus, natural photosynthesis is more resource-efficient relative to artificial photosynthesis. Still, we wouldn’t have to worry of Carbon Dioxide production at night, with artificial photosynthesis – as machines don’t respire. Thereby, they’re both equally effective. Still, there if a perk of obtaining the Formaldehyde, which could be used as an antiseptic or fungicide when humidified – or even for mummification of organic matter ^[1]. I mean, why not?

For a while, let’s break our assumption and reassume this to be an official way of generating Oxygen on Mars too: By now, we would have noticed that Carbon Dioxide is common in all of the above methodologies – which would mean that they’re feasible on Mars.. But the extraction of that Carbon Dioxide would be much more difficult; as we’re looking for ~5164 times less Carbon Dioxide in a vacuum to the first decimal place! For this reason, generating Oxygen via the aforementioned methodologies would be much more feasible on Venus, than Mars would ever be. To make matters better, we even have other ways of generating oxygen, which are even more feasible, which directly takes advantage over the uniqueness of the Venusian cloud-tops. That includes using its abundance of Sulphuric acid, and indirect abundance of Sulphur Trioxide. You see, the Venusian atmosphere has a great deal of concentrated Sulphuric acid – which, parenthetically, is still technically aqueous. It would mean that it is electrolyze-able. This process has an important significance a bit later, which is why I would like to directly reveal only part of it:

4OH^- → O₂ + 2H₂O + 4e^-                                                                                                                   

Hydroxide^- Ions → Oxygen + Water + Electrons ^-                                   

During this process, breathable oxygen would bubble-off from the positive anode. Correspondingly, if we were to remember the Sulphur cycle in a previous argument (IX), we would remember how Sulphur Trioxide thermally decomposes into breathable Oxygen and (4) Sulphur Dioxide as follows ^[1]:

2SO₃+ (∆Heat) → 2SO₂ + O₂                                                                                

Sulphur Trioxide + (∆Heat) → Sulphur Dioxide + Oxygen

The Sulphur Trioxide needed for this could technically be extracted from the atmosphere – But, a more consistent source of it would be through the thermal decomposition of Sulphuric acid, which makes it quite profusely abundant ^[1]. Moreover, the Sulphur Dioxide produced by the thermal decomposition of Sulphur Trioxide, is quite industrially useful and has a handful of practical applications.

Let’s have a short and snappy recollection of what we’ve learnt so far about Oxygen generation: we learnt that Oxygen could be extracted using Carbon Dioxide, its producible Carbon Monoxide and the Photosynthesises – The Carbon Dioxide required is much more readily available in the Venusian atmosphere;  by a factor of ~5164 times, to be precise. We also have ways of generating Oxygen, using the much abundant Sulphuric acid and Sulphur Trioxide too. We’ve even came across a few bonus products! :

1.       Carbon Monoxide   –   Reducing Agent, O₂ Generator.

2.       Carbon                    –   Too many usages for slot.

3.       Formaldehyde         –   Mummification, Antiseptic, Fungicide.

4.       Sulphur Dioxide      –   Too many usages for slot.

Throughout this chapter, we found many potential ways of making Oxygen. Plus, as much Oxygen as needed could be produced – The materials like Carbon Dioxide and Sulphuric acid, which are needed for Oxygen generation are quite abundant and practically indefinite. Though not even I expected it, we could even conclude that Oxygen generation is much more effective and efficient above the Venusian cloud-tops rather than anywhere on the red planet. For the time being, this fact could unanimously be accepted as a universal truth, in its very own right.

Bibliography

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019