A little more detail:
Imagine a lift check valve, the kind you make from barstock. Ports on either end, coaxial. Communicating holes toward the center, one drilled up, one drilled down.
At the center, a blind hole drilled from the top to intersect the lower communicating hole, and a counterbore at the top, intersecting the upper communicating hole. Ordinarily, you'd put a lifting poppet and maybe a spring in the counterbore, then cap it. Forget the poppet. Forget the spring. Just cap the body.
Now, invert it, and fill the counterbore with water.
Gas flowing in the forward direction of the former lift check valve depresses the water level and bubbles out to the discharge port.
Gas flowing in the reverse direction tries to do the same thing, but can't lift the water in the deep vertical drilled hole, because there isn't enough pressure to lift the water that far.
Ergo, check valve, with no moving parts other than the gas and the water.
You might have to replenish the water.
Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA