SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 14, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Gas Imaging Technology, LLC (GIT), a privately held manufacturer of unique gas imaging and analysis systems that address critical needs for the oil, gas, utility and chemical industries, announces that the Company will present a paper titled Infrared Gas Imaging and Quantification Camera for LDAR Applications. The paper was prepared by the staff at GIT -- Michele Hinnrichs, Ralph Schmehl, Larry McCrigler, Pete Burke, and Andreas Engberg, with support from Patrizia Buttini, of Eni Technology and from Giuseppe Donato and Roberto Maggini of Energy Laser.
The Conference and Trade Show will be held in New Orleans at the Convention Center from Monday, June 19 through Friday, June 23. The paper, one of 24 given, will be presented on Friday, June 23rd at 9:15 am EDT during the Instruments and Applications for Smart LDAR session.
Michele Hinnrichs, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of GIT since its formation in 2004, commented, "We believe this will be the first presentation of an existing, proven technology and will demonstrate the capability of Sherlock(r) not only to image invisible gases but to quantify their concentrations. The other papers in this session will primarily cover the ability of our competitor's cameras to image the gases, though none have the capability to quantify. We have taken the instrumentation to the next logical step -- quantification."
This paper and discussion will address Sherlock, a new technology developed for defense applications and commercialized into a camera for remote imaging and quantification of gases. The Sherlock uses state-of-the-art diffractive optics and image processing algorithms based on patented technology from GIT's parent corporation, Pacific Advanced Technology (US Patents 5,479,258; 5,867,264; 6,680,778) The Sherlock has been applied to remote gas leak imaging and quantification for the oil, gas, chemical and power industry. Gas Imaging Technology (GIT) has been granted the worldwide exclusive license to market the Sherlock for this purpose. This paper describes the Sherlock camera, theory of operations, and applications for environmental monitoring with major emphasis on Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) applications.
The Sherlock has been field tested at numerous oil, gas, and chemical facilities in the US, Canada and the EU. Sherlock has demonstrated that it can see gas phase hydrocarbon leaks at rates as low as 5 ccm and measure concentrations of fugitive gases as low as a few hundred ppm. Recent tests performed in the Val d'Agri Oil Centre at Viggiano (PZ) Italy compared Sherlock's ability to quantify methane gas leaks with a conventional Flame Ionization Device (FID). The Viggiano facility is one of the newest oil and gas plants of the Exploration & Production Division of Eni SpA. The quantification demonstration was supported by Eni Technology in Italy with the assistance of Energy Laser Srl of Italy.
Giuseppe Donato, President of Energy Laser, stated that, "the successful results from field testing with the Sherlock system at Eni's Viggiano facilities gives us the confidence that other facilities will adapt the Sherlock as an essential component of their safety monitoring operations."
About A&WMA
The Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional organization that enhances knowledge and expertise by providing a neutral forum for technology exchange, professional development, networking opportunities, public education, and outreach to more than 9,000 environmental professionals in 65 countries. A&WMA also promotes global environmental responsibility and increases the effectiveness of organizations to make critical decisions that benefit society. The core purpose of A&WMA is to improve environmental knowledge and decisions by providing a forum for exchanging information. (www.awma.org/about/overview.htm)
About Energy Laser Srl
Energy Laser Srl, (www.energylaser.com), an Italian corporation located in Milan, provides innovative products as well as representing and supporting the Italian Government and Industrial Market, manufacturing firms and their technologically advanced products in the field of Safety and Security. Energy Laser's recent manufactured products are Head Mounted Systems for Fire Brigade hands free operations that were recently acquired for the Metropolitan of Milan for Fire Brigade operations, during emergencies.
About Gas Imaging Technology, Inc.
Gas Imaging Technology, (GIT) (www.gitint.com) a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Advanced Technology (PAT) (www.patinc.com), is a California corporation located in Santa Barbara County. GIT has an exclusive worldwide license for products that uniquely address compliance with new EPA standards and address critical needs of refineries, power and chemical plants, oil and LNG tankers, as well as many other facilities. More than $14 million has been invested in development of the PAT technology underlying the Sherlock gas imaging and analysis systems. A substantial portion of this funding came from various military, federal and commercial sources including the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, DARPA, Department of Energy, State of California, Gas Research Institute, BP and Shell Global Solutions.
Products
The Sherlock VOC -- enables the user to "see" emissions of invisible gases that pose grave environmental hazards and expose refineries, chemical and power plants to the risk of catastrophic fires and explosions. The Sherlock incorporates a mid-wave infrared camera that includes PAT's patented IMSS lens and an imbedded computer that can perform the function of data logging, imaging spectroscopy, and digital video recording.
The Sherlock FE -- being used in field trials to monitor and analyze the efficiency of flares and to continuously monitor smokestack emissions. The Sherlock FE is the only system currently on the market that can analyze flare efficiency. It remotely monitors and generates a pixel-by-pixel quantitative analysis of flares and smokestacks. In many circumstances, this remote monitoring can be done from a location that can be miles from the source.