Automated Soil Gas Emission Measurement

本提案的主题是测量土壤气体排放（通量）的技术，这是研究、政府和工业用户感兴趣的测量方法。目前用于测量这些排放的工业标准装置是“静态室”——本质上是一个倒置的小罐子，放在土壤表面，收集土壤排放的气体。静态腔室已经使用了50年，只有渐进式的改进，它们的问题很好地表征了。我们正在申请专利的技术比静态室技术具有显著的优势，并引起了坎贝尔科学加拿大公司的兴趣，这是一家经验丰富的世界领先的加拿大公司。双方的关系从2008年底的初次会面开始发展，并逐渐变得更加认真。坎贝尔认为这项技术可以成为长期监测土壤气体排放的新行业标准，并有兴趣通过坎贝尔科学集团公司向加拿大和全球市场提供探测器。然而，坎贝尔已经确定了商业化的技术障碍。在本次申请中，我们提出了一个完善的工作计划和策略，以及时解决这些问题。在适当的支持下，双方都有信心克服这些障碍，并将一个健全和商业上可行的产品推向市场。

The subject of this proposal is a technology to measure gas emission (flux) from soils, which is a measurement of interest to research, government, and industrial users. The current industry standard device for measuring these emissions is the 'static chamber' - essentially a small inverted can placed on the soil surface that collects gases emitted from the soil. Static chambers have been used for 50 years with only incremental improvements, and their problems are well characterized. Our patent-pending technology holds significant advantages over static chamber technologies and has piqued the interests of Campbell Scientific Canada Corporation, an experienced world-leading CANADIAN company. A relationship has grown from an initial meeting in late 2008, which has become progressively more serious. Campbell feels that this technology could become a new industry standard in long-term monitoring of soil gas emissions and would be interested in offering the probe to markets in Canada and worldwide via the Campbell Scientific group of companies. Campbell has, however, identified technical barriers to commercialization. In this application, we propose a sound workplan and strategy to address these issues in a timely manner. With appropriate support, both parties are confident that these hurdles will be overcome and a sound and commercially viable product can be moved to market.