SBIR Phase I: An Integrated Sensor System for Autonomous Monitoring of Carbon Dioxide Exchange and Transport at the Air-Sea Interface

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*** 9660049 Goswami Carbon dioxide is a major end product of fossil fuel combustion and many other energy-related terrestrial activities. It is also an important pollutant. How CO2 is assimilated and transformed by terrestrial and marine ecosystems is unclear, but it is known that the world's oceans are the single largest sink for atmospheric CO2. It is very important to monitor CO2-related processes and parameters, because the results of such monitoring are critical to chemical oceanography, to atmospheric science, to marine biology, and to the direction of future energy policies. Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes a completely integrated sensor system for long term (at least a year) autonomous buoy-based monitoring of CO2 transport and exchange at the air-sea interface. This fixed/flowing fiber optic chemical sensor (F30CS) system employs a miniaturized buffer flow coupled to a dual fiber optic optrode. CO2 is sensed using a pH sensitive indicator such as mete cresol purple. Dissolution of CO2 leads to reversible modulation of the buffer pH. The pH indicator is permanently entrapped in porous polymer spheres. A replenishable buffer solution eliminates the irreversible changes that have previously prevented the realization of long lived CO2 optrodes. This sensor system is an instrument of particular importance to science and to the national critical technology area of pollution minimization and remediation. It will significantly advance chemical oceanography, marine biology, atmospheric science, and ecosystem science. In addition to marine-based monitoring, the instrument could be used in such terrestrial aquatic ecosystems as lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, and in water quality and general environmental applications. Other applications include monitoring at severe/waste water discharge points, sewage treatment plants, and fish hatcheries. ***