ZEN Graphene Solutions recently announced that the Naval Material Technology Management (NMTM) section of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has partnered with ZEN and Evercloak as a testing organization, and has agreed to provide in-kind donations of test services from the Naval Engineering Test Establishment (NETE).
The tests will compare the efficiency of an HVAC unit produced with the Evercloak dehumidification membrane technology to the incumbent HVAC system that is currently in use on the RCN’s Halifax-class frigates.
Evercloak is evaluating the advantages of its dehumidification membrane technology against the current dehumidification system used by the RCN. Based on lab testing and modelling, Evercloak estimates up to 75% energy savings and anticipates that the equipment will have a smaller footprint and also require minimal maintenance as there will be fewer parts to replace.
As previously reported, Evercloak and ZEN were awarded $125,000 each as part of a Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen) Project. The project entitled Advancing Large-Scale Graphene and Thin-Film Membrane Manufacturing will support the scale up of graphene oxide (GO) production by ZEN to supply GO to Evercloak for their scale up and optimization activities.
Francis Dubé, ZEN CEO commented, Having the opportunity to test ZEN’s GO in Evercloak’s dehumidification technology with the Royal Canadian Navy is an excellent platform to showcase how nanotechnology can improve performance compared to current technologies. This could provide significant commercial opportunities beyond RCN should the testing prove successful.
Evelyn Allen, Evercloak CEO stated, We are thrilled to be working closely with the Royal Canadian Navy, ZEN, and our proto-type manufacturing partner Environmental System Corporation to showcase Evercloak’s graphene-based membrane performance in these critical environments.