DEAR0001837

New competitive cooperative agreement with GE Vernova Operations LLC, DE-FOA-0002989 (SEA CO2) Control# 2989-1534.

Project title: ''Spatially resolved multi-parameter sensing of ocean carbon dynamics utilizing fiber optic time-of-flight sensors.''

The primary objectives of the project are: I) to develop a novel fiber optic sensor for high fidelity measurement of marine pH and pCO2, II) to design a distributed measurement system that spans kilometers horizontally with spatial resolution of 5 – 20 m and can be deployed vertically down to ~1 km depth, III) to enable robust measurements disentangled from environmental disturbance and biological activity (i.e., photosynthesis and respiration), IV) to demonstrate durability against biofouling and other factors impacting long-term structural and measurement integrity of the system, V) to validate measurement performance on an existent MCDR field and VI) to illustrate scalability of the measurement system on large ocean expanses, based on mobile sweeping of the ocean, with a techno-economic analysis.

GE Vernova Operations

MARINE CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL (MCDR) WILL BE AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF A FUTURE NEGATIVE EMISSIONS INDUSTRY, WHICH, ALONGSIDE EMISSIONS REDUCTION, IS NECESSARY TO RESTRICT GLOBAL CLIMATE WARMING TO LESS THAN 2°C AND AVOID GLOBAL, IRREVERSIBLE, AND CATASTROPHIC CHANGES CAUSED BY THIS TEMPERATURE RISE. SENSING EXPORTS OF ANTHROPOGENIC CARBON THROUGH OCEAN OBSERVATION (SEA-CO2) SEEKS TO ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MCDR INDUSTRY THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCALABLE MEASUREMENT, REPORTING AND VALIDATION (MRV) TECHNOLOGIES. MRV MUST BE OF SUFFICIENT QUALITY TO QUANTIFY CARBON DRAWDOWN MAGNITUDES, THE DEGREE OF PERMANENCE, AND BOUND THE UNCERTAINTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THESE PARAMETERS SO THAT CARBON MARKETS CAN ASCERTAIN CREDIT QUALITY AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS CAN MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS REGARDING INVESTMENT RISK. TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS, A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHEMICAL OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA COLLECTION IS REQUIRED, MOVING FROM A SINGLE-POINT COLLECTION PARADIGM TOWARDS A GOAL OF PERSISTENT SENSING OF PARAMETERS ACROSS LARGE AREAS AND/OR VOLUMES. IN ADDITION, REGIONAL-SCALE MODELING OF THE COMBINED MAJOR OCEAN CARBON PATHWAYS RELEVANT TO MCDR APPLIED TO OBSERVATION SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS WITH QUANTIFIABLE UNCERTAINTIES AS OUTPUTS ARE REQUIRED. THESE TECHNOLOGIES COULD ALSO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE SECONDARY ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH MCDR.

81.135 - Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy

Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) [DOE]

Niskayuna, New York United States

City-Wide

Funding Opportunity Announcement: Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic Carbon through Ocean Observation (SEA CO2) (DE-FOA-0002989)