A CO2 atmosphere or any other oxygen bearing gas is converted to a high-purity O2 supply by in-letting a flow of CO2 from the atmosphere into a closed container, which is equipped with a means for creating a glow discharge or other method for dissociation in proximity to a permeable silver membrane kept at a temperature between about 400 and 800 C. A glow discharge is created to dissociate the CO2 to form a partial pressure of atomic and molecular oxygen. The oxygen produced is allowed to absorb, dissolve as atoms, permeate the silver membrane to a vacuum interface in a downstream region thereof, where the atomic oxygen thermally recombines on the surface of the membrane to O2 and desorbs: O O yields reversibly O2. The desorbed O2 is pumped away from the downstream region to maintain as low a concentration of O2 in the downstream region as possible. The pumped away O2 is then compressed into a storage volume to provide an adequate pressure of oxygen for functional utilization.

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