Picarro Unveils the Industry's First Real-Time Mobile Geo-Informatics Platform for Quantifying Methane Emissions across Natural Gas Production Fields
For the First Time, Natural Gas Producers and Regulators Can Accurately Identify and Quantify Emissions to Ensure Significant Economic, Environmental and Safety Improvements
HOUSTON - CERA Week 2013 - Picarro Inc. (Twitter: @Picarro), today announced Picarro Surveyor™ for natural gas emissions, the world's first mobile and cloud processing platform for measuring fugitive methane emissions across an entire natural gas production field. The new solution allows natural gas producers and hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") engineering firms to accurately identify and quantify fugitive emissions in order to improve site efficiency and safety, minimize production losses, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrate regulatory compliance.
Experts forecast that domestic natural gas deposits will make the U.S. energy independent and a net exporter of natural gas in the coming decades. But to achieve this, producers and regulators need a highly accurate, quick and simple means of measuring fugitive emissions to ensure production efficiency and safety. Picarro Surveyor for natural gas emissions radically simplifies the application of sophisticated greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement instrumentation and geo-informatics to display and quantify the flow-rate of natural gas emissions in a real-time graphical format on a mobile tablet or other web-enabled device.
"Picarro Surveyor for natural gas emissions enables every producer to ensure that they are extracting natural gas from production fields, including fracking sites, in the most efficient, safe and environmentally sound manner," said Michael Woelk, CEO of Picarro. "The economic savings from stopping fugitive losses alone can be enormous, but moreover, producers and regulators now have the means to credibly demonstrate and assure the public that natural gas production is safe and sustainable - or not."
Picarro Surveyor for Natural Gas Emissions--A Mobile Geo-Informatics Platform for Fast, Accurate and Cost-Effective Measurement of Methane Emissions
For the first time, natural gas producers can quickly, easily and accurately measure emissions from their gas production sites. Picarro Surveyor for natural gas emissions is a fully integrated instrument and geo-informatics platform that operates within an automobile, while continuously transmitting all data to Picarro's cloud processing platform, P-Cubed®, for real-time browser-based information sharing. Picarro Surveyor shares the same patented Cavity Ring-down Spectroscopy (CRDS) technology with the company's renowned greenhouse gas (GHG) instruments, which are used by the world's top atmospheric research institutions such as NASA, NOAA, LSCE and the Chinese Meteorological Administration.
In addition to its CRDS gas detection technology, Picarro Surveyor is the only solution to continuously integrate wind transport physics into its emission detection analytics to instantly identify gas emission location and report land surveyed with numeric flow-rate values. P-Cubed, which powers its data analysis, mapping, archiving and reporting features, provides real-time graphical visualizations of the surveyed area for simultaneous viewing by numerous users on a mobile tablet or other web-enabled devices. This combined capability results in a radical simplification of extremely complex measurements so that anyone--without any special knowledge or training--can clearly see the location of gas plumes with accurate flow-rate values.
Using Picarro Surveyor, natural gas producers can:
   - Boost gas field production and revenue--companies can pinpoint and
       quantify sources of large fugitive emissions, correct leakage problems,
       and avoid millions of dollars in lost production from existing fields.
   - Demonstrate site safety and efficiency--generate reports that illustrate
       the effectiveness of their operations in minimizing emissions to
       regulators, industry watchdog groups, local communities, and other field
       stakeholders.
   - Reduce local and global environmental impact--minimize the environmental
      impact by providing the critical ongoing measurement data necessary to
      benchmark field emissions and reduce problem areas over time.
   - Manage risk--help the energy industry reduce regulatory risk, legal
      liability, and potentially higher insurance costs by implementing
      proactive measures to minimize methane emissions and improve management
       of hydraulic fracturing sites.
   - Evaluate new emissions-related technologies, processes and
      measures--help producers evaluate new technologies and processes to help
      minimize emissions by providing continuous, ongoing measurements that
      benchmark historical performance against current performance.
"The accuracy, simplicity and mobility of Surveyor is a testament to the talent and skills of Picarro scientists, engineers and developers," added Woelk. "With Picarro Surveyor, calculations and estimations are replaced with precise direct measurements displayed in a graphical format that anyone can immediately comprehend. Complex measurements in demanding conditions are no longer the sole domain of highly trained scientists and technologists. Instead, Picarro Surveyor brings simplicity and transparency to our nation's critical goal of energy, economic and environmental security."
End-to-End Safety and Efficiency of Natural Gas Production, Distribution and Delivery
The introduction of Picarro Surveyor for natural gas emissions follows last year's introduction of Picarro Surveyor™ for natural gas leaks and the evaluation and deployment of the innovative mobile platform by leading gas utilities. For downstream natural gas pipeline leak detection, Picarro Surveyor has been proven to find significantly more leaks in a fraction of the time when compared to traditional gas leak survey processes.
Picarro's mission is to grow an enduring and globally admired enterprise by transforming how, when and where world-class scientific measurements are made, and to enable anyone to make them. The company has been recognized by global and U.S. economic, energy and environmental organizations for its development and deployment of innovative technology. This includes selection to the World Economic Forum's 2012 class of Technology Pioneers, selection as a 2012 Energy Innovation Pioneer by IHS CERA, and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Technology Transfer (STTR) award.
Pricing & Availability
Picarro Surveyor for natural gas emissions will be available in Q2, 2013. For more information on pricing and availability, please visit Picarro's web site or contact sales@picarro.com for more information.
About Picarro
Picarro is the world's leading producer of stable isotope and gas concentration measurement systems for science and industry. Picarro's products serve a wide variety of applications, including: Earth sciences, air quality, greenhouse gas and fugitive emissions measurements, energy exploration and distribution, and supply chain integrity. Deployed on all seven continents in places as diverse as the Greenland Ice Cap, the Eiffel Tower, NASA aircraft, and Pacific Gas & Electric's natural gas leak detection vehicles, Picarro's solutions are unparalleled in their precision, ease of use, portability, and reliability. The company's products are all designed and manufactured at Picarro's Santa Clara, California headquarters and exported to countries worldwide. Picarro's technology is based on dozens of patents related to cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS). Investors include Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Focus Ventures, Greylock Partners, Mingxin China Growth Fund, and NTT Finance. For more information, please visit www.picarro.com.
SOURCEÂ
Picarro Inc.
Web Site: http://www.picarro.com
