Atmosphere Management Solutions & Systems
Our systems are in place on the world’s most technically advanced submarines allowing the vessels to stay submerged for longer and operate more stealthily than ever before. We design and develop unique systems for the latest submarines or retrofitted to replace existing equipment.
We have continued to evolve compact equipment that offers exceptional reliability, is easy to maintain in situ, and quiet in operation. Our services cover life support system design and manufacturing through to testing and through-life support.
Our systems are platform agnostic with bespoke solutions developed and in service with many of the world’s navies on:
- Nuclear powered platforms
- Air Independent Propulsion platforms
- Conventional diesel electric platforms
The atmosphere management systems within a submarine are critical – assuming importance equal to the propulsion, navigation systems and weapons. Our atmosphere management systems ensure that a submarine’s atmosphere is always safe to breathe. We provide the required balance to achieve an optimal atmosphere for life and work aboard the vessel.
Oxygen Generation Equipment
Our electrolysers produce extremely pure oxygen from sea water to deliver refreshed breathable air as part of the environmental management system – allowing submarines to remain submerged for extended periods.
For the most advanced nuclear-powered platforms, we have developed a combined system that simplifies integration and reduces running costs.
Equipment is available for different boat sizes and to support different sizes of crew.
Regenerative Carbon Dioxide removal
Our current carbon dioxide removal equipment uses a re-generable chemical to remove carbon dioxide continuously from the closed atmosphere of a submarine. We are exploring next generation products leveraging advances in carbon dioxide absorbent technology whilst maintaining the same regenerative and capabilities.
Our solutions are modular design and construction with various sizes available and variable carbon dioxide removal rates, to suit requirements such as crew composition. They can mix the CO₂ with Hydrogen for optimised gas management. We supply a number of navies from around the world with CO₂ scrubbing equipment of varying capacities. For air-independent propulsion (AiP) submarine applications we offer a low power version of the scrubber.
CO₂RE® Non-regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal
The CO₂RE® units have been developed exclusively with market leading Micropore whose patented technology is the first major advance in CO₂ adsorbent technology in over 100 years - providing superior performance advantages over existing granular adsorbents.
Micropore uses a CO₂ adsorbent powder which is formed into a cartridge to create a revolutionary CO₂ adsorbent system used in re-breathing and life support applications. The company has an excellent record in supplying carbon dioxide adsorbents for use in submarines, surface combatants, CBRN enclosures, mines and aerospace platforms.
Designed with advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimise the performance of the CO₂RE® units in CO₂ removal. This provides an optimally balanced solution across all modules.
Gas management
Our Low Temperature Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Eliminator converts CO and H₂ to carbon dioxide and water vapour respectively by oxidising them over a precious metal catalyst. Unlike other catalyst used for this purpose, the specially formulated grade functions at ambient temperatures, and in the presence of water vapour, without being poisoned.
Our High Temperature solution converts CO and H₂ to carbon dioxide and water vapour respectively by oxidising them over a Hopcalite catalyst at high temperature – typically in excess of 200°C. Our Proton Purifier produces ultra-pure hydrogen by the process of selective diffusion through palladium alloy tubing.
TEXVENT™ Air distribution infrastructure
TEXVENT™ is our unique patented total textile ventilation technology system for naval platforms – a natural, modern, and efficient alternative to/ or replacement for traditional hard ducting. It combines versatility with flexibility, creating a lightweight total textile distribution or transfer ducting system which is cost-effective, extremely quiet and easy to install.
This synthetic textile is manufactured using flame-retardant material, rigorously tested by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) the Italian classification society in accordance with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Fire Test Procedure Code and Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations.
TEXVENT™ allows heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to keep pace with changes brought about by increased out-of-area operations, the higher thermal loads experienced when additional electrical equipment is fitted or as a vastly superior alternative to traditional ducting and distribution materials.
