Tag Archives: Bombsniffer (using gas chromatomography and ion mobility spectrometry)

A Canadian military science posting in honour of Remembrance Day 2019

A surprising number of every day products, including items such as microwave ovens, penicillin, nylon, and more have come to us courtesy of military science. While we remember our fallen soldiers today (Remembrance Day 2019) in Canada and elsewhere throughout the Commonwealth countries, I thought it might be interesting to consider contemporary Canadian military science.

I’ve often wondered whether or not we have an equivalent to the US Army’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and their other military research laboratories. We do! Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) or Recherche et développement pour la défense Canada (RDDC). Here’s more from its Wikipedia entry (Note: Links have been removed),

[…] is an agency of the Department of National Defence (DND), whose purpose is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), other government departments, and public safety and national security communities with knowledge and technology.

DRDC has approximately 1,400 employees across eight research centres within Canada.

Civilian achievements

Over the years, researchers at DRDC, sometimes in partnership with the NRC [National Research Council of Canada] and others, have been responsible for numerous innovations and inventions of practical application in the civilian world. These include the G-suit, motorized wheelchair, the Alouette 1 satellite, Black Brant rocket, improvements to the carbon dioxide laser, flight data recorder, the Ballard fuel cell membrane, and the Bombsniffer (using gas chromatomography and ion mobility spectrometry).

While there’s been some type of organized Canadian military research since the 1920s (it wasn’t always called DRDC/RDDC), it’s only since 2018 that we have a rough equivalent to DARPA and, in our case known as, the Government of Canada Department of National Defence’s Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS). One of the currently available ‘challenges’ involves finding ways to make it easier to handle waste and manage energy in temporary camps, from the Pop-up City: Integrated Energy, Water and Waste Management Systems for Deployed Camps contest, which was launched August 21, 2019 and has a deadline of December 13, 2019,

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) must be ready to deploy on short notice, in any climate and for prolonged periods. The CAF presently relies on Relocatable Temporary Camps (RTCs) for its deployments that sustain personnel through demanding operational and environmental conditions.

The Department of National Defence’s (DND) Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program is calling innovators on to propose and develop solutions that provide integrated energy, water and waste management systems for the CAF’s RTCs deployed in national and international operations.

The “Pop up City” Contest is a multi-phased contest for innovators to propose and develop reliable, energy efficient, integrated and scalable energy, water and waste management systems for RTCs. Contests are a competitive means of finding innovative solutions and awarding prizes to the best solutions derived from the innovation community. Specifically, this Contest is seeking solutions designed to manage the energy, water and waste needs of a 150 to 1,500-person RTC, operating in a temperate climate zone.

To standardize the required performance capacity for system designs, contestants will be supplied with per capita data for energy and water consumption, and waste production, along with representative annual climate data, including wind and solar patterns. Contestants will be asked to provide scalable solutions that can supply the requirements of RTCs over a 12-month period in this climate zone. System designs which would also allow for the occasional deployment to extreme hot and/or frigid climatic zones are strongly encouraged.

There are four competitive rounds culminating in the chance to win $2.0 million. Here are some details from the Pop-up City Contest FAQs (frequently asked questions),

Can a Contestant submit a solution for more than one technical domain (i.e. energy, water or waste) in Round 1 of the Contest?
Yes, Contestants can submit more than one proposal to the Contest. However, each solution must be submitted with its own complete application package. Contestants may not submit more than one solution proposal per technical domain.
Can I submit a proposal describing a solution that already exists?
Yes, Contestants may submit proposals describing solutions that are already at a high solution readiness level, with the caveat that Contestants must hold the Intellectual Property (IP) rights or have the necessary authorization from the owner of the IP rights to submit an application for the purpose of this Contest for any existing technologies submitted.
How do I apply for this Contest?
You must apply online through a Canada Post epost Connect™ service account. Before submitting your application materials (including a completed Application Form and a Declaration Form, and with documentation to demonstrate your eligibility), you must have a Canada Post epost Connect™ service account. It will take some time to register for an account, so it is strongly recommended that you initiate the registration process at least 2 weeks before you plan to submit your application materials. Instructions for creating an account are provided in Section 2.12 of the Contest Program guide.
What type of monetary awards will be given to contestants who are screened into Round 1 and Round 2 of the Contest?
If a Contestant is successful in Round 1, they will receive an award of $10, 000. If a Contestant is successful in Round 2, they will receive an award of $50,000.
Is the Contest a call for proposal process that will be awarding contracts to fund work based on project milestones?
No, there is no procurement related activity or contracting process associated with this Contest. Proposals submitted by Contestants may be awarded a monetary prize based on the overall ranking of their technical proposal and eligibility to participate within a specific Round of the Contest. DND will not be entering into a contract for work undertaken by Contestants should they be selected to advance within each Round of the Contest. However should a Contestant be offered a Contribution Agreement to build a prototype in Round 3 they will be reimbursed for eligible costs as stipulated in the Contribution Agreement based on project milestones.
If a Contestant has been selected to receive awards in Round 1 or 2, how will the money be disbursed?
Contestants will receive their award in a single payment via a grant agreement.
If a contestant has been selected to build their prototype in Round 3, how will funding be disbursed?
Should a Contestant be offered a Contribution Agreement (CA) to build their prototype, the CA will have clearly defined parameters based on milestone deliverables that will be used to reimburse eligible expenditures. If milestone deliverables demonstrate that progress in building and testing the prototype are not being met as per the CA, funding for the next stage of the project will not be approved and the CA will be terminated. Contestants will be removed from the Contest in these cases.
How will milestone deliverables be determined?
The milestone deliverables will be specified by the Contestant should they be selected to enter into a CA with DND in Round 3 of the Contest.
Do Contestants need to be a legal entity in Canada to participate in the Contest?
Yes, Contestants need to constitute an eligible recipient as listed in the Contest Program Guide, and be located in Canada to receive a grant payment or enter into a CA with DND on behalf of the Crown.
I am an Academic Institution located in Quebec. Must I abide by the M-30 law? What do I need to do to ensure that I am able to receive funds from the Government of Canada if I am selected in any Round within this Contest?
The Contest Program Guide (Annex C) provides some instructions and a form that must be completed by entities located in Quebec, to whom M-30 applies, and signed by the appropriate authority. You will not be able to receive any prize money or funding from the Government of Canada through this Contest until the appropriate authorization has been received by the IDEaS Program Office.
Will the winner of the Grand Prize of the Contest ($2.0M) be awarded a contract?
A grant agreement, not a contract, will be awarded to the Grand Prize winner at the end of this Contest.
Are there any terms and conditions associated with the Grand Prize?
It is expected that the Contestant who wins the $2.0M Grand Prize in Round 4 will use it to further develop the winning solution along the path to commercialization. Additional requirements will be stipulated in a grant agreement which will be used to disburse funding.
Who will sit on DND’s Technical Review Committee (TRC)?
The TRC will consist of Department of National Defence (DND) scientific personnel as well as members of the Canadian Armed Forces. In addition, select subject matter experts from other Government Departments may be invited to support activities associated with the TRC.
Who will sit on DND Senior Management Funding Oversite Committee?
The Senior Management Funding Oversight Committee (SMFOC), is comprised of the Director General responsible for the IDEaS Program, and the Directors General responsible for DND and/or Canadian Armed Forces organization(s) associated with the Contest.
How will submissions be selected to move on from Rounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 and who will select the Grand prize winner?
The TRC, along with the SMFOC will assess Round 1, 2, 3 and 4 submissions including the Grand Prize winner.
What can the $1.5M in Contribution Agreement for Round 3 winners be used for?
The Contribution Agreement will support the development of a prototype system proposed in Round 2. A list of eligible costs will be provided to Contestants. Recipients may be required to leverage additional funding to build their prototype depending on the cost of their proposal.
What will the Department of National Defence use the information from the prototype for?
This information will help inform the state of the current capabilities of the innovation community in these domains.
Can Contestants submit solutions that have already been integrated in 2 or 3 technical domains in Round 1 of the Contest?
Yes, however each solution must be submitted individually for assessment to determine if it will be screened into Round 2 of the Contest.

Questions from Information Session
The following questions were posed in the English information session held September 11, 2019 for the Pop up City contest. If you did not receive a response to your question, please contact the program directly at: IDEaSContests.IDEeSConcours@forces.gc.ca.

Waste
What’s in scope for solid waste? Food waste? Human waste? Non-organic waste? Does ‘solid waste’ include non-organic solid waste? Can a solution address organic waste only, as opposed to organic and non-organic waste?
Answer: Human waste is included in the black water volumes provided. Wet waste can be assumed to be organic kitchen waste. Dry waste is a mixture of various materials “shipping, office, plastic, metal and textile” in origin. Assumptions on composition of dry solid waste can be made based on total energy content provided of 15 MJ/kg. Organic and inorganic waste can be managed separately, however all solid waste output from the RTC will be measured.
Are solid waste generation numbers segregated from gray water and black water effluents?
Answer: Yes. Per capita volumes of grey and black water are provided and do not overlap with per capita weights of dry and wet solid waste provided.
Do waste management systems need to handle both solid and liquid waste, or just one stream such as grey or black water?
Answer: Solutions must propose management for both solid and liquid waste.
Would grey water be acceptable for reuse in some capacity?
Answer: Yes, strategies for grey water recycling can be proposed.
….

It seems to me this kind of pop up city waster and energy management solution could be very useful in disaster relief.

In any event and not to lose sight of the purpose for this day, I leave you to your remembrances of those who fought and died or were injured in the various wars and military actions where we have participated. Lest we forget.