Sonardyne and Bluefin Robotics, developers of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), have collaborated to integrate a Solstice side scan sonar with a Bluefin-12 AUV with results of recent payload testing producing higher quality imagery than is currently available from conventional sonar. A modular vehicle that allows for swappable payloads, Bluefin-12 is most commonly used for offshore survey, search and salvage, environmental monitoring and unexploded ordnance survey operations.

Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is widely regarded as a viable option to reduce the amount of waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from power stations and industry being released into the atmosphere. Once captured, CO2 is transported by tanker vessel or pipeline and injected into suitable geological formations offshore and stored indefinitely.

Containment failure at an offshore CO2 storage site – whilst viewed as highly unlikely – is of significant concern to regulatory bodies, operators and environmental groups. So in 2014, a three year funded research programme was kicked off with a consortium being appointed and challenged to develop the capability to reliably detect CO2 in the marine environment.