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Awardees:

• Haifeng Zhang, principal investigator and mechanical engineering professor at the University of North Texas
• Lei Zuo, engineering professor at the University of Michigan
• Andrew Dickson, professor emeritus of marine chemistry at the University of California-San Diego

Sponsor: U.S. National Science Foundation

Award Total: $1 million

About the Research: With human activities significantly increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) techniques are offering a promising solution. By enhancing natural biological and chemical processes in the ocean, mCDR helps absorb and store more carbon from the atmosphere, which can mitigate climate change caused by elevated carbon dioxide levels. Monitoring pH is a critical component of this process, yet current pH sensors face many limitations, such as low sensitivity and accuracy, drifting with pressure and temperature changes in the ocean, and discontinuity due to limited power.

Supported by a grant from the NSF’s Ocean Technology Interdisciplinary Program, Zhang is leading a team with research collaborators at the University of Michigan and University of California-San Diego to develop a sensor that can better detect pH levels. The marine energy-powered multimodal Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) sensor array aims to provide uninterrupted, highly sensitive and accurate pH measurements across vast ocean areas with varying depths.

Researchers will work with industrial offshore instrument developers and governmental labs, particularly in the mCDR, sustainable ocean monitoring and ocean renewable energy fields, to accelerate deployment of the forthcoming MEMS sensor. The grant also will support curriculum development, professional non-technical skills training and research mentoring for graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students in the North Texas region as well as in the Michigan and UC-San Diego communities.

Impact Goal: “This sensor will enable accurate pH measurement that is fundamentally important for marine carbon dioxide removal technology,” says Zhang, who specializes in creating sensors for harsh environments. “It will play a crucial role in assessing environmental impact, optimizing the processes and ensuring the overall success and sustainability of mCDR efforts. Other applications of the sensor include wave and tide gauging, tsunami detection, ocean surveys, seabed subsidence monitoring, inverted echo sounders, towed arrays and calibration of underwater mapping systems.”