Researchers at the University of Victoria and U of T Engineering Professor David Sinton (MIE) will design a new fibre-optic system to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) at underground storage sites.

Carbon Management Canada will provide the team with a $983,578 grant to research ways CO2 can be safely injected into storage formations, which has the potential to reduce harmful emissions from power generating stations that burn coal.

The three-year project, headed by the University of Victoria, will begin in the lab and then shift outdoors for field tests.

In designing a new system to monitor CO2 concentrations, the researchers will make use of patented fibre-optic technology, along with patented techniques to measure CO2 fluxes.

Carbon Management Canada is a Network of Centres of Excellence supported by federal and provincial governments as well as industry. CMC is a community of over 150 university researchers, and industry and government practitioners with the vision, the commitment, and the enthusiasm needed to take the upstream fossil energy industry to zero carbon emissions.