On Fri, 8 Sep 2017 00:11:09 -0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote:

Anyone know if saturation by carbon dioxide has a time constant?
http://i.imgur.com/MSm72Tp.jpg

Swirling seems to work with these 2L bottles, where I mix 4 degrees C (or
about) water under 30 psi CO2 pressure (or about) for about 10 minutes per
bottle (give or take) because I assume "diffusion" is slow; but is
diffusion slow, or is it (nearly) instantaneous?
http://i.imgur.com/gUJnLk3.jpg

Anyone have experience with how long it should take for carbon dioxide to
diffuse into the surface layer of water, and then to diffuse deeper if I
don't swirl?

If I just plug it in for a few minutes, the water isn't bubbly enough.

If I leave it for an hour, two things that are bad happen:
1. I lose CO2 because my connections are imperfect, but worse,
2. The water warms up (meaning it will hold less C02).

If you don't know whether the diffusion "should" be instantaneous or if
there is some kind of pragmatic coefficient, that's OK. It works.

I just don't know what I'm doing and why.
Do you?
I can't tell you how fast it will diffuse if the gas is just exposed
to the one surface of the liquid when the container is upright. But I
can tell you that gentle agitation will greatly shorten the time for
the gas to dissolve into the liquid. A friend of mine, who owns a
brewery, told me how he carbonates beer sometimes in a "Corny" keg.
These are the small diameter kegs seen at portable soda fountains. The
ones he carbonates at home are the 5 gallon size. He fills 'em with
the liquid, pressurizes 'em, then lays them on the floor and rolls
them back and forth for about 1/2 hour while watching TV.
Eric