Request for Technologies Hydrocarbon Sensors
 Act is accepting preliminary applications from developers and manufacturers of commercially available in situ hydrocarbon sensors who are interested in participating in independent performance testing of their technologies. ACT will review responses from interested parties and invite those with technologies that meet established criteria to submit a full
proposal package.
This Request for Technologies (RFT) is in part a rapid response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ACT’s technology verification will focus on instruments that provide measurements of hydrocarbons in water directly from offshore upper mixed layer, nearshore and estuarine environments impacted by the spill. The goal of the proposed work is to provide rigorous and quality assured data on the performance of sensors that could be used to detect, track, and quantify oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, in support of rapid response and operational decisions for recovery. ACT has streamlined the standard Technology Evaluation process to provide timely information on instrument consistency, reliability and robustness. Initial field testing will be conducted during one to two month field deployments at diverse coastal settings along the Gulf coast. Also, recognizing that there is a need for systems within post-spill restoration timeframes, which would be months to years, this RFT also covers potential future field evaluations of instruments at multiple ACT Partner Institution sites in a wide range of environments in long-term moored deployments, and on mobile platforms in surface mapping and in deepwater, vertical profiling applications for submerged oil.
As with all ACT Technology Evaluations, there will be no fees required for qualifying applicants. Therefore, all technology testing activities are contingent upon available funds.
To qualify for this verification, candidate technologies must be:
- New, near-commercial technologies that are ready for the market with available quality testing data to support performance claims.
- Designed to measure hydrocarbons in the type of field applications described above.
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Deadlines and Dates |
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- Hydrocarbon Sensor Initial Application (form with signed cover letter) must be received by
5:00 p.m. Eastern Time – July 31, 2010
- Notification of Conditional Acceptance – August 6, 2010
- Full Application packages due – September 3, 2010
- Final verification protocols and Test Plan – October 1, 2010
- Field testing tentatively scheduled to begin in November 2010.
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More information |
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 Hydrocarbon Sensors for Oil Spill Response 
In 2008, as an important first step in the Technology Verification process, ACT conducted a workshop on the state of technology for hydrocarbon sensors for response to oil spills (www.act-us.info/workshops_reports.php). Over 30 scientists, researchers, resource managers, and sensor developers/manufacturers participated in the workshop and described the general strengths and limitations of current hydrocarbon sensors (in-situ, laboratory, and remote sensors). Once a spill occurs, multiple sensor systems will be needed to detect, track, delineate, and quantify the oil to permit operational decisions made regarding feasibility of and best strategy and tactics for response and recovery. No single hydrocarbon sensor has the capability to collect all this information. Workshop consensus recommendations were to: (a) develop or adopt standard instrument specifications and testing protocols to assist manufacturers in further developing new sensor technologies, and (b) conduct independent performance testing of hydrocarbon sensors to ensure systems meet operational requirements. The results of this workshop were used to identify the main applications and key parameters that ACT will evaluate in this Technology Verification. |
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Questions, Comments, and Suggestions
Email Dr. Tom Johengen
Email Dr. Mario Tamburri |
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Wave picture copyright Guardain Newpapers Ltd |
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