New ‘rebreather’ for Navy divers

A Navy diver hoisted a 60-pound life-support regulator onto his back, then donned a 30-pound helmet. Fellow divers connected the diving suit to an “umbilical” hose pumping in breathing gas and establishing communications with the surface. The diver descended into a large test pool at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City (NSWC), Fla. - home to the Navy Experimental Diving Unit. His mission was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MK29 Mixed Gas Rebreather - a prototype system that’s the first of its kind within the Navy diving community, and developed by NSWCPC. “This rebreather system is an awesome opportunity to enhance (diving) capabilities” said Office of Naval Research’s Command Master Chief Matt Matteson. Navy divers breathe an exact mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, but below 150 feet, nitrogen becomes toxic. This new solution is designed to replace nitrogen with helium. Buy, helium is expensive and hard to get because of worldwide shortages. MK29 solves these problems. Oxygen-helium is filtered through a carbon dioxide scrubber, which removes carbon dioxide and recycles the breathable gasses back to the diver reducing helium requirements by about 80 percnet, says Dr. John Camperman, a senior scientist overseeing its development at NSWCPC. Test results suggest it will be an major asset to Navy divers who can perform more dives, and stay underwater longer if surface supply gas is interrupted. The NSWCPC research team will conduct further MK29 tests this year, and hope to see the rebreather issued throughout the fleet by 2019. (Source: Seapower Magazine 05/31/18)