COMEX (or Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises) is a French company specializing in engineering and deep diving operations, created in November 1961 by Henri-Germain Delauze and run by him until his death in 2012. This company is known worldwide for its technology in regard to underwater exploration at great depths. Its line of business includes: * hyperbaric testing facilities, * oceanographic research ships (Minibex and Janus), * testing pool. COMEX carried out pioneering work in very deep

saturation diving Saturation diving is an ambient pressure diving technique which allows a diver to remain at working depth for extended periods during which the body tissues become solubility, saturated with metabolically inert gas from the breathing gas mixture ...

. The company experimented with the use of

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

in the divers'

breathing gas A breathing gas is a mixture of gaseous chemical elements and compounds used for respiration. Air is the most common and only natural breathing gas, but other mixtures of gases, or pure oxygen, are also used in breathing equipment and enclosed ...

. This work with heliox (a breathing gas mixture of

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

and

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

) and hydreliox (an exotic breathing gas mixture of

and

gas) mixtures started with Hydra I in 1968. The saturation diving physiology studies were conducted with helium from and with hydrogen from . The diving depth record for off-shore (saturation) diving was achieved in 1988 by a team of COMEX professional divers (Th. Arnold, S. Icart, J.G. Marcel Auda, R. Peilho, P. Raude, L. Schneider) performing pipe line connection exercises at a depth of of seawater ( msw/fsw) in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, whist breathing a hydreliox mixture, as part of the Hydra VIII (Hydra 8) programme. The Hydra programme culminated with Hydra X (Hydra 10) in 1992 when COMEX diver Théo Mavrostomos achieved a record simulated dive of in an onshore hyperbaric chamber. The use of hydrogen for diving was in part driven by the need to overcome the problems of high-pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS). However, there was another reason for the interest in using hydrogen in a

. In 1987, Comex was part of a Canadian-French consortium that was building the world’s first commercial nuclear mini-submarine. This submarine, Saga, was a prototype intended to be used for oil exploration and development under the Arctic ice. Saga was built on a hull originally constructed by

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the A ...

but not completed due to lack of funds. Saga would have a complete saturation diving system on board. The nuclear power plant would be able to produce large volumes of hydrogen and oxygen through the

electrolysis of water Electrolysis of water is using electricity to Water splitting, split water into oxygen () and hydrogen () gas by electrolysis. Hydrogen gas released in this way can be used as hydrogen fuel, but must be kept apart from the oxygen as the mixture ...

. This would provide plentiful amounts of

for autonomous diving operations under the Arctic ice cap. The project suffered tax problems in Canada which caused political repercussions between the French and Canadian governments. Saga did undergo successful sea trials in 1991 but without the intended nuclear power plant. Underwater propulsion was provided by a

Stirling engine A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic expansion and contraction of air or other gas (the ''working fluid'') by exposing it to different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical Work (ph ...

and surface propulsion by a diesel engine. The project was abandoned and Saga was laid up at Marseille.

References

External links

Official COMEX Website

Historique Henri-Germain Delauze
{{Authority control Underwater diving engineering Manufacturing companies based in Marseille Commercial diving contractors