Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), in collaboration with NETL, will develop buoy-based optical fiber sensors to study how the oceans remove carbon from the air and generate findings that could advance the development of marine-based technologies to reduce atmospheric levels of greenhouse gas.

“So far, the majority of efforts to remove excess carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air have focused largely on what can be done on land. To achieve gigaton-scale removal of CO₂ emissions, which is necessary to stop climate change, a full range of technologies must be investigated, including efforts to leverage the natural carbon capture and storage processes of the world’s oceans,” said NETL’s Ruishu Wright, a research scientist.

“However, more detailed sensing at a large scale across the ocean is required for accurate measurement, reporting and validation of the efficiency of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR),” said Wright, an internationally recognized expert in the use of sensors in energy-related applications.

The team, consisting of Pitt (lead), NETL and industry partners, are among 11 projects in eight states that were selected to receive a combined $36 million to accelerate the development of mCDR technologies and help achieve the Biden Administration’s goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.  

Funding was received from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), part of the ARPA-E Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic Carbon Through Ocean Observation (SEA-CO2) program.

The team was awarded more than $2.2 million to develop buoy-based sensors for measuring pH, temperatures, CO₂ and other parameters in seawater from the ocean’s surface to the seafloor.

The oceans cover 70% of the world’s surface. But because of the ocean’s size and depth, satellite technology can only glimpse surface trends and limited depths. Distributed optical fiber sensors act like a wired radar net with high spatial resolution, light weight and low power requirements to give researchers a clearer picture inside the seas.  

Data gathered by the sensors could help researchers understand how the oceans efficiently capture CO₂ from the air and develop marine processes to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere for large-scale decarbonization.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ocean is like a great sponge that collects CO₂ from the atmosphere. “Distributed fiber optic multiparameter sensing will provide a powerful tool to monitor, report and verify the effectiveness of marine carbon removal,” Wright said.

“By integrating with mobile marine sensor systems, we will monitor geochemical processes within the ocean environment to kilometer-range depths to understand for the first time its physical parameters and geochemistry from the surface to the ocean floor,” explained Paul Ohodnicki, RK Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy and associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Pitt, and who serves as the lead principal investigator of the project.

The project aligns with the memorandum of understanding between NETL and Pitt signed in early 2023 to explore collaborations in the area of infrastructure sensing. Industry partners on the project are Sofar Ocean Technologies and OFS.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.