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Eleven projects across eight states in the USA have been selected for potential funding of $36 million in total for research on carbon capture technologies that tap into the ocean’s natural carbon trapping processes, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced.
“Funded through DOE’s Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic Carbon through Ocean Observation program, these projects will support novel efforts to measure, report, and validate mCDR [marine carbon dioxide removal] and identify cost-effective and energy efficient carbon removal solutions”, it said in a press release.
“mCDR techniques take advantage of the ocean’s natural carbon capture and storage processes and, together with other carbon dioxide removal methods, have the potential to mitigate and remove hundreds of millions of tons of harmful carbon dioxide emissions per year”, the DOE noted in the announcement on its website.
“mCDR takes place across large surfaces or volumes of the ocean over comparatively long periods of time”, the department explained. “The SEA-CO2 program recognizes that scalable, cost-effective technologies to measure, report, and validate various mCDR approaches are critical to developing this growing industry and supporting President Biden’s clean energy and climate goals”.
The University of Colorado, which has been earmarked the biggest share of the funding with $5,904,233, “will develop a system of optical underwater sensors utilizing broad-band lasers to sense and measure dissolved carbon compounds”, the news release said.
Massachusetts’ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, allotted a potential $4,802,245, “will develop a natural thorium decay sensor that would attach to gliders, autonomous vehicles, and profiling floats to quantify the flux rates of particulate organic carbon to the deep ocean”.
The New York-based research arm of General Electric Co. has been provisionally awarded $4,274,658 for a project to develop a fiber optic sensor cable that has a range of multiple kilometers for measuring “chemical ocean carbon parameters over large areas when towed from marine vessels”.
The other selectees are located in Maine, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Washington.
“Managed by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the teams announced today—including small and large businesses, national labs, and universities—will play a critical role in creating new and appropriately scaled sensors and models that will quantify the effectiveness of mCDR techniques”, the DOE said.
Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement for the DOE announcement, “Reaching President Biden’s ambitious decarbonization goals and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will require a wide range of innovative climate solutions, from common-sense approaches like improving energy efficiency to novel applications like utilizing the ocean’s natural carbon removal abilities to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from the atmosphere”.
The DOE and the potential recipients will now go through a “negotiation process” before awards can be finalized, the department said.
In another carbon capture funding opportunity, the DOE announced July 10 over $23 million for technology transfer and knowledge sharing involving capture, storage and utilization solutions.
This funding, called the Regional Initiative to Accelerate Carbon Management Deployment, was launched 2019 under the department’s Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office (FECM).
“With the selections announced today, FECM has invested over $777 million in more than 100 projects since January 2021 that advance research, development, and deployment of carbon capture, transport, and storage approaches”, the DOE said in the July announcement.
The announcement unveiled 16 projects across 14 states for a total of $23.4 million “to provide locally-tailored technical assistance and enhanced stakeholder engagement around carbon management technologies”.
Besides technical assistance, the projects concern public engagement and geological research. They focus on communities affected by carbon management projects.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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