Development and Evaluation of an Online Air Quality Monitor (DIVEAIR2) for Diving Compressors

The U.S. Navy Diver's Air Sampling Program coordinates the mandatory semiannual air purity testing of compressors used to supply diver's air in the Fleet. Gas sampling kits are sent to the field, where gas samples are taken. These samples are then returned to a contract laboratory for analysis, with the results subsequently reported back to the field. This approach is expensive, cumbersome, and potentially unreliable. Consequently, the U.S. Navy is interested in having a real-time online air quality monitor to ensure that compressors deliver safe diving air. With the help of the manufacturer, Navy Experimental Diving Unit has developed and extensively tested an online air quality monitor (Anagas Diveair2, model DV 2.0, Geotechnical Instruments, Inc.; Leamington Spa, UK) for compressors supplying diving air for U.S. Navy operations. This monitor simultaneously displays levels of O2, CO2, CO, and volatile organic compounds, and it has many features designed specifically for the Navy: (1) an internal gas pump, (2) visual alarms, (3) datalogging capability, (4) a push-button program to automatically record peak gas values during testing, (5) temperature compensation of gas readings, and (6) passcode protection for calibration and other functions. The final version Diveair2 that we have tested should allow reliable real-time screening of diving air - provided that any hardware and procedures adopted for use in the field are verified to produce acceptable results.